Author: Steven Ovadia

Steven Ovadia is Professor/Web Services Librarian at LaGuardia Community College.
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CUNY OER Online Class

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Want to know more about Open Education Resources? The CUNY Office of Library Services has just the opportunity for you:

CUNY’s Office of Library Services is sponsoring an online workshop designed to provide an overview of Open Education Resources (OER) for CUNY faculty looking to integrate OER into their classes.
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This class is made up of four modules, plus a final project. Each module is made up of readings, videos and discussions. Each workshop section will be comprised of no more than 20 participants in order to foster in intimate forum to share OER work and get feedback from colleagues and the facilitator. The goal is to finish the workshop with a better understanding of OER and also to come away with some work that can be immediately integrated into classes.
The workshops will be entirely on line and last for a two week period requiring approximately 10 hours of work. The activities and assignments can be completed on a flexible schedule during the time period. To be eligible for this workshop, applicants must be teaching faculty scheduled to teach in the spring 2015 semester. Department chair and Chief Academic Officer sign-off will be required. Faculty successfully completing the workshop will receive compensation of 10 hours at the non-teaching adjunct rate for participation.

Click here to register.

Questions? Please contact: Ann Fiddler at Ann.Fiddler@cuny.edu or 646-664-8060

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Creative Commons Hires New CEO

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Ryan Merkley is the new CEO of Creative Commons.

Creative Commons plays a huge role in the world of OER. Merkley’s focus, for now, seems to be on making Creative Commons content more accessible. From The New York Times:

Still, one of the principal challenges for the organization is to keep tabs on its licensees, Mr. Merkley said. The 500 million total “is an estimate, not an actual number,” he said. “It is hard to track them.”

That technical problem, he said, speaks to a larger concern: how to organize Creative Commons content so that the public can easily find and use it in their own projects.

It’ll be interesting to see how Merkley’s outreach on behalf of Creative Commons translates to OER exposure.

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Many Students Forced to Choose Between Food and College Expenses

"[Sometimes] it is a choice between whether they buy a book for class or they put food on the table for their family."

The Washington Post has a fascinating piece on "food insecurity" in college students.:

"A problem known as ‘food insecurity’ — a lack of nutritional food — is not typically associated with U.S. college students. But it is increasingly on the radar of administrators, who report seeing more hungry students, especially at schools that enroll a high percentage of youths who are from low-income families or are the first generation to attend college."

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it seems food insecurity negatively impacts academic performance.

Open education resources don’t solve this problem, but they do make things easier for students faced with the choice between paying for college and eating.

For more information on food insecurity, including readings and lessons, check out an OER collection like MERLOT.