Preparing for Fall Semester

As we prepare for fall semester with all that still remains unknown, OER creation and curation are just as vital as ever to meet the needs of our students. Today, we’ll be sharing some inspiring ideas for collaboration in OER as you prepare to dive back into teaching and learning this fall.

This newsletter contains:

Details on the upcoming Office Hours on managing teams
Exciting new projects and calls for participation
Links to recordings of this summer’s Office Hours

New Releases in Geology and Aerospace!

Book cover for the Story of Earth: An Observational Guide featuring pictures of various geological sites

The Story of Earth: An Observational Guide is a newly released open-access lab manual for historical geology. Through their teaching experiences, authors Jinny Sisson and Daniel Hauptvogel found that students have difficulty making observations and interpreting them. Perhaps this is a result of the plethora of standardized tests students must take throughout their primary school career nonetheless, it is a problem that we have observed. Their goal in creating the material for this lab manual is to focus heavily on students making observations of geologic data, whether that be rocks, minerals, fossils, maps, graphs, and other things. This resource is focused on helping students build effective observation and interpretation skills. Learn more about the project and team.

Book cover for Aerodynamics and Aircraft Performance

The team behind Aerodynamics and Aircraft Performance have announced the release of their resource. This robust 236-page resource provides a comprehensive introduction to basic, subsonic, aircraft performance and features an overview of the basics of aerodynamics. "The objective of this text is to provide a “stand alone” coverage of basic, subsonic, aircraft performance preceded by an introduction to the basics of aerodynamics that will provide a background sufficient to the understanding of the subjects to be studied in aircraft performance," says Anita Walz. Read the announcement and share it widely!

These new releases feature team members from various Textbook Success Program cohorts! For The Story of Earth: An Observational Guide, Ariana Santiago, Dr. Daniel Hauptvogel and Dr. Jinny Sisson were from the February 2020 cohort. The Aerodynamics and Aircraft Performance project featured the support of program alum Anita Walz from the October 2019 cohort.

Promo card for OER Office Hours featuring Rebus Community and Open Education Network logos

#OEROffice Hours: Managing Inter-institutional Authoring Teams

Our monthly Office Hours series, co-hosted by the Open Education Network and Rebus Community, will take place tomorrow: August 19th at 2:00 PM ET.

Guests: Donna Westfall-Rudd (Associate Professor, Agricultural, Leadership, and Community, Virginia Tech), Mary Leigh Wolfe (Professor, Department of Biological Systems Engineering, Virginia Tech), Matthew DeCarlo (Assistant Professor of Social Work, La Salle University, and Jonathan Lashley (Associate Chief Academic Officer, Idaho State Board of Education).

Finding sustainable and scalable ways to support open textbook authors can be both rewarding and challenging. One approach is to foster collaboration, including across institutions, so that subject experts can share the load of content creation. In this Office Hours session, we’ll hear from guests who support inter-institutional authoring teams. They will share how they structure their OER authoring programs, what they’ve learned from working with multiple authors at different institutions, how they’ve resolved conflicts, and how their program design has changed over time. Guests will share stories from both consortial and institutional contexts, offering strategies that can be applied in a variety of environments.

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Call for participation

This section features calls for participation from projects with a topic in our Contributor Marketplace. If you would like to see your call in our newsletter, follow these steps to amplify your requests for contributors.

The Journal for Multicultural Education’s special issue on the Intersections of Open Educational Practices and Equity Pedagogy is looking for submissions! The editorial team is seeking articles that provide theoretical or practical applications of open education that highlight traditionally underrepresented perspectives. Learn more about the submission process.

TSP Spotlight

This section highlights projects currently enrolled in the Textbook Success Program. Want to be part of the Textbook Success Program? Our cohorts run three times a year. Sign up for a consultation.

The team behind the Manitoba adaptation of Pulling Together: Foundations Guide is so excited to share their incredible, community-driven project. This adaptation is the work of many communities in Manitoba ‘pulling together’ to localize the knowledge shared within the resource. Read more about their process for making this happen. Stay tuned for the upcoming release!

Get Ready for the New School Year with Recordings of #OEROfficeHours

Throughout the summer, our inspiring guests shared their insights at #OEROfficeHours. If you weren’t able to tune in this summer, checkout our latest recordings.

July’s Session: Evaluating OER for Accessibility

What should you look for when searching for OER in repositories? How can you test different OER formats to ensure they are accessible? What does an accessibility audit of learning materials entail? Is there anything to look for beyond technical accessibility? Our guests shared tips and tricks that you can apply at different stages of your discovery or adoption process.