Day/Time: Tuesday, May 11, 4:00 PM to 5 PM
Taking Open Textbooks Beyond Gen Ed: Building a New OER Publishing Model to Support Career and Vocational Education
Presenters:
- Robert Hilliker, Rowan University
- Marilyn Ochoa, Middlesex County College
Description:
In renewing the Open Textbook Program grants this past year, the U.S. Department of Education updated their Absolute Priorities to focus on addressing gaps in the “Open Textbook Marketplace.” This reprioritization reflects the success of initiatives such as OpenStax and the Open Textbook Network in providing for general education courses as a way to maximize the financial impact of their efforts. Our (now-funded) proposal to create a Community College-led, state-wide Open Textbook Collaborative in New Jersey seeks to fill an important need for Open Textbooks that support Vocational and Career Education programs, reducing the burdens borne, in many cases, by students from historically-disadvantaged groups and providing them with pathways to remunerative career opportunities in growth industries. In this session, we will discuss our plans to develop a new model for career-oriented Open Textbook publishing based on a library-led collaboration between educational institutions, professional associations, and industry partners.
Scribbling in the Margins of the Scholarly Communication Notebook
Presenters:
- Maria Bonn, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
- Josh Bolick, University of Kansas
- Will Cross, North Carolina State University
Description:
Open education presents the opportunity to build participatory pedagogical communities. As DeRosa & Jhangiani (2017) observe, “embedded in [open education’s] social justice commitment to making college affordable for all students is a related belief that knowledge should not be an elite domain. Knowledge consumption and knowledge creation are not separate but parallel processes, as knowledge is co-constructed, contextualized, cumulative, iterative, and recursive.” That same inclusive principle should apply to teaching and learning about publishing.
We are developing an openly-licensed textbook that introduces and engages with issues in scholarly communication, to be released in 2021 by ACRL. As we undertake this work, we are aware that any static text will be hierarchical and limited. To open doors to the multiplicity of approaches and perspectives in the field, as well as reflect the dynamic nature of both open education and scholarly communication, we are developing a companion online community hub: the Scholarly Communication Notebook (SCN).
This session introduces the SCN, an IMLS funded project (LG-36-19-0021-19) aspiring to be the locus for an inclusive community of practice for teaching scholarly communication to emerging librarians. This LPF session will invite participants to bring their expertise to teaching and learning about publishing, with a particular eye to making an inclusive open resource.
We will offer a guided tour of the first version of the SCN and lead discussion about: ways to build a community that is open to and inviting for participants that reflect the diversity of scholars and scholarship; how the SCN can meet the needs of those scholars and benefit from the expertise of scholarly communication professionals; What is needed to make the SCN what DeRosa and Jhangiani call an “empowering, collaborative, and just architecture for learning”?
Community, Storytelling, and Good Metadata: Marketing Advice for OER Librarians
Presenter:
- Leigh Kinch-Pedrosa, Pressbooks
Description:
Marketing in the open education world requires ethical practices that often conflict with the impulses of many traditional marketers. Installing a zillion cookies to track smartphone use and sending out targeted social media ads might prompt the usage of a product, but that would be unethical and out of place in higher education. Instead, marketers (in this case OER librarians) need to focus their efforts on community building, telling stories, and celebrating the hard work of OER creators. Telling the story of a new OER in a clear, honest, and vibrant way gives potential readers something to connect with and encourages them to share the product within their networks even if they are not directly invested in that book. This method is far more organic than a social media ad, and that honesty shines. In this presentation, Leigh Kinch-Pedrosa will share practical advice about how librarians and other OER practitioners can market OER to increase their adoption and extend their use, thus encouraging the enactment of the 5Rs (retain, remix, revise, reuse, redistribute). Drawing on her experience working with non-profit organizations (Rebus Foundation, Confabulation) and ethical edtech companies (Pressbooks), Leigh will explain key approaches to marketing education products and services in ethical, culturally respectful, and effective ways.