What is Open Education (OE) Week?
Open Education (OE) Week is a free global event coordinated by the Open Education Consortium that is meant to raise awareness about Open Educational Resources (OER) and general OE practices. Many institutions and organizations celebrate OE Week by hosting events to educate their members about OE, why it’s important, and how OE practices and resources are used in their own educational communities. To read more about OE Weeks of past and present, please visit the Open Education Week website.
Past Geneseo OE Week Events
Geneseo has always welcomed OE Week with excitement and enthusiasm, celebrating in ways that have ranged from inviting nationally recognized Open advocates like Lawrence Lessig to speak to campus members, to organizing campus speakers to share their experiences with OE in their own teaching. You can read more about what we’ve done for OE Week in 2019 and 2020 on our library’s news site.
This year’s OE Week Events
This year, since we can’t be in person to celebrate Open Ed Week, our team is excited to offer two Geneseo virtual workshops:
Wednesday, March 3:
2:30pm—3:30pm, “Leveraging Your Institutional Repository for Open Education” Jonathan Grunert, our Scholarly Communications Librarian, will discuss some of the steps for creating open lesson plans and sustaining open access by depositing those plans into Geneseo’s institutional repository, KnightScholar. SUNY Geneseo’s institutional repository, KnightScholar, highlights scholarship and creative works from the Geneseo community. Since 2018, we have added works across several SUNY Geneseo academic departments, and of several different types. Most of the material in KnightScholar are results of research or creative endeavors, though we also include educational materials that are freely available to the public.
Thursday, March 4:
2:30pm—3:45pm, “Introduction to Pressbooks for Publishing OER” presented by Allison Brown, Digital Publishing Services Manager for Fraser Hall Library. Are you interested in creating or editing an OER but don’t know where to start? Milne Publishing offers the Geneseo community access to Pressbooks, an online book production software. Come get an overview of the tools available to you and see examples of how others have used it. This virtual workshop is being offered in support of Open Education Week.
Aside from these awesome local events, we’re excited to share some of the events being hosted virtually by other institutions this Open Ed Week that we hope you’ll find interesting.
The following events have been hand-selected by the Open Services Committee as events particularly relevant to our vision for Open Ed Week this year:
Monday, March 1, 2021:
12:00pm—12:45pm, “Open Course Design with Accessibility in Mind”. Join Jason Rodenbeck, Kennesaw State University’s Assistant Director of Academic Web Accessibility, as he shares his expertise on creating accessible online courses while incorporating Open Educational Resources. Register for this event.
1:00pm—2:00pm, Equity and Open Education Faculty Panel. Hear from Jen Klaudinyi, Portland Community College, about her design of the Equity and Open Education Faculty Cohort professional development course, and from faculty participants who have adopted open educational practices with an equity lens. Register for this event.
2:00pm—3:00pm, “Open Education as a Tool for Equity & Inclusion”. Open Ed Week Keynote Address at Portland State University Jasmine Roberts is a renowned Open Education leader and professor of communications at The Ohio State University. She advocates for education ecosystems that are accessible, affordable, equitable, and inclusive to everyone regardless of their background. In this keynote, she will focus on how Open Educational Resources and Open Educational Practices encourage more equitable, inclusive, and diverse classrooms. Register for this event.
Tuesday, March 2:
12:00—12:45pm, “Share and Share Alike: A Guide to Creative Commons Licenses”. Librarian Nikki Cannon-Rech will be joining us from Georgia Southern University to explain the intricacies of the Creative Commons Licenses and how they connect to the 5 Rs of OER. Register for the event.
1:00pm—2:00pm, “How does OER meet our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Goals?” Eliminating textbook costs through the use of Open Educational Resources may seem like a simple change, but it’s one that can have a big impact. Research has shown that using OER in place of traditional textbooks helps to create more equitable and inclusive learning experiences for marginalized students. In this workshop, learn more about how OER is a DEI tool and how PSU faculty are using OER in their courses. Register for the event.
Friday, March 5, 2021:
2:30pm—4:00pm, “Imagining an Open Future with Robin DeRosa (Keynote)”. Open Educational Resources (OER) are a powerful tool for improving college affordability and widening access to knowledge. In this presentation, Robin will introduce the cost-saving potential of OER, but also expand into a broader discussion of how open tools and practices can transform pedagogy and contribute to student success. In a challenging time for colleges and universities, we will look at the potential of “open” to help us realign with our core educational missions, reanimate our teaching, and reimagine higher education’s future in terms that are hopeful, collaborative, and truly learner-centered. Register for the event.
Additionally, SUNY Online has published its own set of OE Week events for you to explore!
We hope you’ll take advantage of these free virtual opportunities to learn more about Open Education during OE Week!
