Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education

The latest from ISKME's Hal Plotkin on why "now is the time to give all students access to continuously improving open educational resources rather than allow commercial publishers to hide unnecessary costs in ever-rising tuition bills." #OER

Many colleges and universities are turning to Inclusive Access deals to try to save students money during this pandemic, but they have some fine print you should know about. True, some students pay less with these programs, but they're only given a few weeks to opt-out of the program - and their grades can suffer if they do. Students with the most need lose their ability to resell their textbooks, rent for less, or borrow from the library instead. Moreover, these deals oft...en reduce transparency and obscure costs, leaving little accountability once they're in place. We believe that institutions should choose free first. That’s where OER comes in: it’s free from confusing contracts and just actually free. So we're joining a nationwide campaign to #FreeTheTextbook. You can learn more about the issue and join the effort at wefreethetextbook.org.

Starting this week! Our Back-to-School webinar series for educators "Going Open For All The Right Reasons (& Resources)" will discuss best practices when using and customizing resources that other teachers have shared freely. Reserve your spot here! https://tinyurl.com/OpenBackToSchool

Educators: Have you found amazing resources that you’re using in your classroom or customizing for your students? Have other educators shared with you so that you didn’t have to reinvent the wheel? Join our #BackToSchool series discussing best practices when using and customizing resources that others have shared freely. More information here: https://tinyurl.com/OpenBackToSchool

ISKME is accelerating its collaboration with OER and online education champions across California community colleges to capture and document successful models for bringing OER into remote learning. The project will yield a series of webinars and a guidebook for faculty and campus administrators that outlines best practices for integrating OER into online education, thanks to a Spark Grant from The Michelson 20MM Foundation!