News
2023
2023-2024 UHCC OER Professional Learning and Incentive Award Programs are Open!
OER 101 is an asynchronous online professional learning opportunity that gives you the basics for understanding OERs and using them as teaching materials. It will provide you with basic copyright, fair use, and licensing information and open your world to over one billion OERs.
UHCC participants will be compensated $360* for completing the course requirements and receive an official UHCC OER 101 certificate. Twenty seats have been set aside for OER 101.
* All incentive payments will be processed as overload, subject to participant eligibility.
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If you completed OER 101, you can apply for the Modification Award (OERMA) or Creation Award (OERCA). The OERMA is for modifying a textbook or course, and the OERCA is for creating a textbook or course to OER or Textbook Cost: $0. Award amounts from $600-$4,800* are available for individual and team projects.
If you are interested in submitting an OERMA or OERCA proposal but have not completed OER 101, you will have until November 30, 2023, to complete the online course.
Past Awardees: 2021-2022, 2022-2023
* All incentive payments will be processed as overload, subject to participant eligibility.
Pre-HISSI OER Conference at Leeward on March 2
The UHCC OER initiative is hosting a pre-HISSI OER conference on March 2, 2023 for UHCC faculty and lecturers interested in taking OER beyond adoption.
Workshops on open pedagogy, UH Pressbooks, and H5P are scheduled. Sessions will include hands-on activities led by nationally recognized experts on open pedagogy, social justice, and equity, diversity, and inclusion.
The target audience for these workshops are faculty and lecturers with a functional knowledge and understanding of OER and its benefits and who are comfortable with Creative Commons licenses. Prior OER professional development is required.
8:30 - 9:00 - Morning refreshments
9:00 - 9:30 - Welcome by Leeward CC Chancellor Carlos Peñaloza and organizers
9:30 - 12:00 - Open Pedagogy workshop by Dr. Karen Cangialosi & Dr. Rebecca Vásquez Ortiz
12:00 - 1:00 - Lunch (provided)
1:00 - 2:30 - UH Pressbooks and H5P workshop by Billy Meinke, Outreach College
2:30 - 3:00 - Closing
In-person attendance is recommended, but a live stream will be available to registered participants.
Hands-on activities are planned and laptops are recommended. Laptops will not be provided.
No cost to attend. The registration deadline is February 23. Attendance will be capped at 40.
Sponsored by UHCC OER with support from the Leeward OER Campus Committee, 2023 Hawaii Student Success Institute and the Office of the Vice President for Community Colleges.
2022
2022-2023 UHCC OER Professional Development and Incentive Award Program is Open
A new year brings new opportunities for OER learning and development. The UHCC OER initiative has opened registration for OER 101. OER 101 is an asynchronous online course designed to give you the basics for understanding OERs and how to use them as teaching materials. Faculty and lecturers completing OER 101 are eligible to submit proposals for OER Modification and Creation Awards. The proposal deadline is September 19, 2022.
More details about OER 101 and the OER Modification and Creation Awards can be found on the UHCC OER website. See 2021-22 awardees.
Contact Junie Hayashi, Jason Yamashita, or Wayde Oshiro if you have any questions. You can also book an appointment with one of them on the Leeward CC Library Book a Librarian page.
Botany in Hawaiʻi is the 1,000th title in the Open Textbook Library
Botany in Hawaiʻi, a textbook authored by Leeward Community College Assistant Professor Daniela Dutra Elliott and Lecturer Paula Mejia Velasquez was selected as the 1,000th title added to the Open Textbook Library, a highly regarded and popular website for open educational resources (OER).
Each title in the Open Textbook Library has undergone a review process before inclusion in the collection. The addition of the 1,000th title is a significant milestone for the Library as it celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2022. The selection of Botany in Hawaiʻi for this honor is a reflection of the quality of this textbook and the uniqueness of its content.
The University of Hawaiʻi System is a consortia member of the Open Education Network, the organization managing the Open Textbook Library. The Network and its community of members across the US, Canada, and Australia have played an important role in the UH OER initiative through training opportunities, shared resources, and shared strategies, all of which have helped build our capacity to support local adoption, modification, and creation of OER like Botany in Hawaiʻi.
Congratulations to Daniela and Paula for authoring the 1,000th open textbook in the Open Textbook Library!
Open Education Network press release
Daniela’s and Paula’s OER Journey for Botany in Hawaiʻi EMC blog post
TXT0 Reaches 58.7% of Total Spring 2022 Classes at Leeward
529 classes or 58.7% of total CRNs are labeled TXT0 in Spring 2022! This represents 220 courses taught by 170 instructors. With a total class enrollment of 8,755 students, the estimated textbook cost savings this semester is $875,500. A big mahalo to everyone who has transitioned their course away from commercial textbooks. Zero-cost textbooks and other no-cost resources, including subscription resources offered by the Library, help to make college more affordable to our students. Beyond saving students money, adopting OER and Open Pedagogy in the classroom benefits students by centering them as learners engaged in the content creation process.
Contact the Campus OER Committee if you want to learn more. Email leeoer@hawaii.edu, or reach out to one of your friendly committee members. See our TXT0 dashboard maintained by Pete Gross for additional data and a breakdown of the numbers. Be proud of your accomplishment, Leeward. We remain the leader in TXT0 and OER across the UH System!
2021
Daniela Dutra Elliott and Paula Mejia Velasquez’s OER Journey for Botany in Hawaii
Congratulations to our 2020 Leeward OER Creation Award (LOERCA) winners, Daniela Dutra Elliott and Paula Mejia Velasquez for creating, "Botany in Hawaii," an OER textbook for Botany and Horticulture that focuses on the endemic flora of Hawai'i, where botany is bridged with the unique climate and geography. This was a tremendous accomplishment including original photos and illustrations. Mahalo to Daniela and Paula for publishing this unique textbook on LibreTexts that is truly local and culturally relevant! Read all about Daniela and Paula's OER journey at: http://go.hawaii.edu/V6c.
New TXT0 Data Dashboard is now available!
A new data dashboard displaying current and historical TXT0 data going back to 2015 is now available. The dashboard provides charts and graphs that visualize the growth of TXT0 classes at Leeward since 2015. Data includes classes, courses, and faculty counts as well as discipline trends and textbook cost savings.
The Leeward TXT0 data dashboard was developed by Petersen Gross, Associate Professor of Computer & Information Science with support from Tao Feng, Institutional Analyst for the Office of Planning, Policy & Assessment, in consultation with the Leeward OER Campus Committee.
56% of Fall 2021 Classes are TXT0
This semester 553 classes representing 190 courses are designated TXT0. This represents 56.1% of total classes at Leeward. Total enrollment in TXT0 classes is 9,362. Leeward continues to be the UH leader in TXT0!
The University of Hawai‘i Community Colleges continue to be a part of the global Open Educational Resources (OER) movement to reduce textbook and learning material costs for students and to provide quality education. Research shows that students do better when taught with OER.
By Tad Saiki
The pandemic exacerbated pre-existing stressors in the lives of many university students. Employment, housing and food insecurity have been compounded by new health concerns and the rapid shift to online learning. [Continuing reading on UH News.]
Apply for the Leeward OER Awards (Deadline: March 31, 2021)
We have outstanding instructors who use and create Open Educational Resources (OER) and renewable assignments. Itʻs the reason why Leeward is the UH leader with 52% of our classes designated TXT0.
Help us to recognize our next OER Champions, yourself included, and encourage others to contribute to these resources and renewable assignments which help our students. See what our OER instructors are doing at Leeward by visiting our Padlet and consider applying for an OER award: Leeward OER Educator, LDORA, and LOERCA.
52% of Spring 2021 Classes are TXT0
Leeward reached a milestone in Spring 2021 with 487 classes designated TXT0. Enrollment in TXT0 classes is 8,141.
View infographic. Accessible version is also available.
Open Education Week (March 1-5)
It’s Open Education Week! In celebration of Open Education Week at Leeward, the OER Committee created a digital board (Padlet) to compile stories, information, resources, OER works, Q&A, and more to share with you. Please come and visit our Padlet to find out what your colleagues have been doing with OER and to share with our community. We hope to gather everyone in this virtual space to recognize, share, and celebrate all the wonderful OER efforts at Leeward! To engage with us in Padlet:
Click the "Login" at the top right. Using your google account is easiest, or you can post anonymously (and write your name your post).
You can post to share something and/or comment on an existing post. To post, click on the + under the category/column. You have options to post text, images, video, etc. To comment, scroll to the bottom and click where you see “Add comment” to type your response.
2020
March 2020 - The research and evaluation of ATD’s OER Degree Initiative provided encouraging evidence regarding the academic outcomes of students who enrolled in multiple OER courses, the economic impacts for both students and institutions, and the experiences of key stakeholders. Students benefitted from unrestricted access to course content and improved course experiences, in addition to saving money that could be used towards other educational or personal expenses.
Overall, the OER Degree Initiative offers an important demonstration of the opportunity, the task, and the challenges of a systemic approach to OER. Download Report.
2019
The model of course material distribution and selection is at an inflection point. After decades of only minor changes to how faculty discovered and adopted textbooks for
There is a growing acceptance (even preference) by faculty for digital materials. More faculty now prefer digital over print, and they report that their students are likewise accepting of digital materials.
Faculty, chairpersons, administrators, and even entire college systems are increasingly concerned about the cost of materials for their students. This is driven by historically rising prices and the emergence of lower-cost alternatives, resulting in a growing awareness of cost as an issue at multiple levels within the institution.
An understanding on the part of faculty that many of their students are going without the required text. This is reported as primarily a cost concern, but also because the students are not convinced that they need the materials.
The introduction of new publishing and distribution models by commercial publishers, the most important being "inclusive access," has substantially altered the options available to faculty.
Full Report PDF: Inflection Point: Educational Resources in U.S. Higher Education, 2019 (pdf)
By Kelli Trifonovitch
Archive
2015 Press Release
September 1, 2015 - "Hitting the Books Fall 2015" on Hawaii Public Radio by Noe Tagawa
Recommended Wording for OpenStax Textbooks
Lucky you! Your e-textbook is free and a print version is available at very low cost! The book is available in a wide variety of free online formats via the website listed below. You can use the book in whichever format(s) you want; I recommend that you download the entire .pdf so that you always have access to your book. Printed copies at a significantly reduced textbook rate are also for sale at www.openstaxcollege.org
Recommended Wording for OER Course Syllabus
Required Text: This course uses Open Educational Resources (OER), which means that we use materials that can be used, adapted and shared for free to deliver this course. Your "textbooks" will be the OER materials, instructor materials, and Leeward Library resources.
or
Textbook Cost: $0
Designate Courses "Textbook Cost: $0"
Starting Fall 2015, instructors who teach courses with zero textbook costs may self-designate their course as "Textbook Cost: $0" by asking their Division Secretary to add Textbook Cost: $0 at the beginning of the SSA Text field in Banner. This will show up at the beginning of the Comments section for the course in the course listing.
Spring 2016 "Textbook Cost: $0"
Leeward CC faculty and lecturers have taken a significant step in reducing costs for students. This semester alone there are 148 Textbook Cost: $0 CRNs (sections) with an enrollment of 2,643 students. 49 Instructors are doing Textbook Cost: $0! See listing.
The total estimated cost savings this semester alone is $131,334!
OER Campus Committee Established
Leeward CC established an OER campus committee as of January 2016. The committee meets once a month (first Monday of each month). The committee is made up of representation from across the campus. For more details on the purpose and goals of the committee, link to the Action Plan, etc., click for more information.
Textbook Cost: $0 Defined
As of March 2016, Leeward CC is using this definition for Textbook Cost: $0. Also, here is a link to the FAQs developed for Textbook Cost: $0
Fall 2016 "Textbook Cost: $0"
Leeward CC is offering 203 "Textbook Cost: $0" CRNs (sections) with an enrollment of over 3,500 students. 65 instructors are doing "Textbook Cost: $0"! See listing.
OER Campus Committee Established
Leeward CC established an OER campus committee as of January 2016. The committee meets once a month (first Monday of each month). The committee is made up of representation from across the campus. For more details on the purpose and goals of the committee, link to the Action Plan, etc., click for more information.
Online Access to Course Materials
The Leeward CC Library purchased online versions of course materials for select courses giving instructors and students access to course materials which may be found at: http://guides.leeward.hawaii.edu/course-reserves/currentlist
The availability of online versions of the books required for courses are dependent on the publishers so the Library was not able to purchase all titles. When available, unlimited access was purchased to allow all students to use the book concurrently. However, not all titles are available for unlimited purchase so multiple copies were purchased when it was feasible to do so. In these instances, the electronic copies replicate the Library's course reserves model in which multiple (print) copies are available on a first come, first served basis.
The Course Reserves list will indicate the type of access and number of copies. Embedded links will take students to the Hawaii Voyager book record where they will find a link to the resource. Off-campus users will be required to authenticate using UH login credentials.
Definition of terms
Unlimited - No restrictions on access for concurrent users.
Concurrent Users - Access is restricted to the number of users or copies indicated.
Limited Use - Access is restricted to the number of uses indicated.
Coming Soon - Titles from our new Overdrive ebook platform are available for online reading but we are working to resolve some technical issues with the Borrow feature. Users may experience problems when attempting to borrow titles but online reading is functional. When fixed, Overdrive allows users to borrow books for 14 days.
The titles purchased by the Library were pulled from the Bookstore Textbook List for Fall 2016.