Here's the latest from Dr. Sebastian:
"OER Peer Group
I have submitted an application to create a VCCS OER Peer Group. According to Dr. Abby Stonerock, the application is currently being reviewed and a decision will be announced in the next few weeks. If it is approved—and I feel pretty good it will be—the first step will be to invite interested faculty and staff to join as well as get the membership to agree upon and organize a leadership structure. Whatever form this structure takes, I am going to insist that it be made up of college faculty, including library staff. Can I insist? I am going to insist anyway.
In the meantime, let me know if you are interested in being a member of any future OER Peer Group by filling out this short, painless survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1bpFMHk-...8/viewform
Hewlett OER Grant
The System Office is in the process of submitting an invited proposal to the Hewlett Foundation for funding for a Z Degree x 23 (working title) project. The goal of the project will be to identify faculty at 6-8 colleges to develop a credential that can be earned without incurring textbook costs, similar to TCC’s Z Degree and NVCC’s OER-based General Education degree. The ultimate goal is to scale the OER degree concept to all 23 colleges. The Chancellor has secured support from the presidents to move forward with the proposal. If funded, the System Office would work with Lumen Learning to offer funding, support, and training to participating colleges. For this grant to succeed, the VCCS will need the participation of all of you OER pioneers to help build support among faculty and staff.
You should also know that Hewlett sees this effort as a pilot for a national Z Degree project they will be discussing early in 2015. The goal of that project will be to establish Z Degrees in at least one higher education institution in all 50 states.
Exciting stuff. Stay tuned.
NVCC Wow Award
Did you know that Dr. Preston Davis and his team were awarded a 2014 WCET Outstanding Work (WOW) Award for NVCC’s OER-based`Associate Degree Project? You can read more about their project and watch a short video on the WCET website (scroll down a bit). http://wcet.wiche.edu/advance/wow-media-release-2014. Congratulations to Preston, and ELI, for their great work.
OER courses in Blackboard
So, where are all these VCCS OER courses, anyway? Finding a common repository for the 70+ VCCS OER courses developed over the past two years has been a real challenge. Bb xpLor seemed to have a lot of potential as a common repository but, unfortunately it hasn't really panned out. With the help of some smart folks in ITS, particularly David Carter-Tod, we have developed what we think is pretty sensible and straightforward solution for our current and future OER courses.
Faculty will find all of the VCCS grant-supported OER courses in Bb Learn, under a new tab called Shared Courses. On that page will be links to the course templates which faculty can view, copy, and modify. One by one, each of these courses will be added to Lumen’s Candela platform, which offers a number of benefits to students and faculty. The courses will still be integrated in Bb Learn and able to be adopted and revised. The Shared Courses tab will also contain links to VCCS LibGuides and ALO courses.
You can see an unfinished prototype of the Shared Courses tab in Bb Learn here: https://www.evernote.com/shard/s2/sh/cf0...-Learn.png
TCDLR Report
The Textbook Costs and Digital Learning Resources Committee released its final report a few weeks ago at the final meeting of the Reengineering Task Force. The report contains a number of recommendations about the continued support and growth of OER use throughout the VCCS. You can read or download a copy of the report here: https://www.scribd.com/doc/253309655/201...nal-Report
OpenEd 2015
The 2015 Open Education conference will be held west and north of here, in Vancouver, BC, at BCcampus. You can read the brief announcement here: http://bccampus.ca/2014/11/25/vancouver-...onference/. Save your pennies and try to go. Vancouver is a spectacular city, and BC is doing a great deal of important and innovative OER work."
--
Richard Sebastian
Director of Teaching & Learning Technologies
Virginia’s Community Colleges
804.819.4795
rsebastian@vccs.edu
"OER Peer Group
I have submitted an application to create a VCCS OER Peer Group. According to Dr. Abby Stonerock, the application is currently being reviewed and a decision will be announced in the next few weeks. If it is approved—and I feel pretty good it will be—the first step will be to invite interested faculty and staff to join as well as get the membership to agree upon and organize a leadership structure. Whatever form this structure takes, I am going to insist that it be made up of college faculty, including library staff. Can I insist? I am going to insist anyway.
In the meantime, let me know if you are interested in being a member of any future OER Peer Group by filling out this short, painless survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1bpFMHk-...8/viewform
Hewlett OER Grant
The System Office is in the process of submitting an invited proposal to the Hewlett Foundation for funding for a Z Degree x 23 (working title) project. The goal of the project will be to identify faculty at 6-8 colleges to develop a credential that can be earned without incurring textbook costs, similar to TCC’s Z Degree and NVCC’s OER-based General Education degree. The ultimate goal is to scale the OER degree concept to all 23 colleges. The Chancellor has secured support from the presidents to move forward with the proposal. If funded, the System Office would work with Lumen Learning to offer funding, support, and training to participating colleges. For this grant to succeed, the VCCS will need the participation of all of you OER pioneers to help build support among faculty and staff.
You should also know that Hewlett sees this effort as a pilot for a national Z Degree project they will be discussing early in 2015. The goal of that project will be to establish Z Degrees in at least one higher education institution in all 50 states.
Exciting stuff. Stay tuned.
NVCC Wow Award
Did you know that Dr. Preston Davis and his team were awarded a 2014 WCET Outstanding Work (WOW) Award for NVCC’s OER-based`Associate Degree Project? You can read more about their project and watch a short video on the WCET website (scroll down a bit). http://wcet.wiche.edu/advance/wow-media-release-2014. Congratulations to Preston, and ELI, for their great work.
OER courses in Blackboard
So, where are all these VCCS OER courses, anyway? Finding a common repository for the 70+ VCCS OER courses developed over the past two years has been a real challenge. Bb xpLor seemed to have a lot of potential as a common repository but, unfortunately it hasn't really panned out. With the help of some smart folks in ITS, particularly David Carter-Tod, we have developed what we think is pretty sensible and straightforward solution for our current and future OER courses.
Faculty will find all of the VCCS grant-supported OER courses in Bb Learn, under a new tab called Shared Courses. On that page will be links to the course templates which faculty can view, copy, and modify. One by one, each of these courses will be added to Lumen’s Candela platform, which offers a number of benefits to students and faculty. The courses will still be integrated in Bb Learn and able to be adopted and revised. The Shared Courses tab will also contain links to VCCS LibGuides and ALO courses.
You can see an unfinished prototype of the Shared Courses tab in Bb Learn here: https://www.evernote.com/shard/s2/sh/cf0...-Learn.png
TCDLR Report
The Textbook Costs and Digital Learning Resources Committee released its final report a few weeks ago at the final meeting of the Reengineering Task Force. The report contains a number of recommendations about the continued support and growth of OER use throughout the VCCS. You can read or download a copy of the report here: https://www.scribd.com/doc/253309655/201...nal-Report
OpenEd 2015
The 2015 Open Education conference will be held west and north of here, in Vancouver, BC, at BCcampus. You can read the brief announcement here: http://bccampus.ca/2014/11/25/vancouver-...onference/. Save your pennies and try to go. Vancouver is a spectacular city, and BC is doing a great deal of important and innovative OER work."
--
Richard Sebastian
Director of Teaching & Learning Technologies
Virginia’s Community Colleges
804.819.4795
rsebastian@vccs.edu
Tara Cassidy
Director of Library Services
Virginia's Community Colleges - System Office
Director of Library Services
Virginia's Community Colleges - System Office