If you weren’t able to attend (or chose not to take notes frantically at) the recent panel event “Open Books, Not Open Wallets: How Open Educational Resources Help Students Spend Less and Learn More,” you might be interested in the three panelists’ materials:

• Steven Ovadia’s slides on What is OER (and why does it matter?)
• Thomas Tradler’s slides on City Tech’s open access pre-calculus textbook (the textbook can also be seen here)
• Michelle Millar Fisher’s Art History Teaching Resources, a fantastic OER resource.

If open educational resources is a topic of interest to you (and how could it not be, when our students are paying so dearly for traditional textbooks?!), consider joining the CUNY Open Education Resources group on the Academic Commons or subscribing to the Open Educational Resources @ CUNY blog.  (If you subscribe to the group, you’ll get notifications about new blogs posts.)

Also: Have 20 minutes to spare?  Learn much more by walking through this short OER about OERs.

More of a visual learner?  Take a gander at this alarming chart of the costs of educational materials vs. other items from 1967 to 2012:

You are invited to an event in the Information Interventions @ CUNY series:

Open Books, Not Open Wallets:
How Open Educational Resources Help Students Spend Less and Learn More

Friday, March 7, 2014, 10am – noon
The Graduate Center, Segal Theater (1st Floor)
Refreshments will be served

Do your students sometimes resist buying and reading textbooks and other course materials? Open educational resources (OERs) such as free or low-cost online textbooks can save students money. There is also evidence that OERs provide deeper engagement with and closer attention paid to course material, which result in more focused teaching and learning.

Come learn about how to take advantage of new strategies and platforms to ensure that our students have access to high quality curricular materials. Library and classroom faculty from across CUNY who have developed, customized, and used OERs will share their experiences. We’ll also learn about resources and support for OERs at CUNY.

RSVP by Thursday February 27 to http://tinyurl.com/oermarch7

Download the flyer

Sponsored by the LACUNY Scholarly Communications Roundtable, the CUNY Office of Library Services, and Just Publics @ 365.

There’s another Information Interventions @ CUNY coming up: Stay tuned for a Spring 2014 event about the controversy surrounding dissertations and open access!

Image by muffin9101985.