News
10 United States
Access codes/assessment platforms
Nine new lawsuits target ‘Inclusive Access’ textbook programs, alleging antitrust violations – May 21, 2020 (EdSurge)
Report: College online access codes are a “bad deal;” publishers say digital options cut costs – February 27, 2020 (News wpxi.com)
College students’ latest headache? Digital access fees on top of rising textbook prices – September 13, 2019 (Chicago Sun Times)
Another big move hits higher-ed publishing, as Wiley buys Knewton – May 6, 2019 (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
Would a new program for textbook access codes really help UNC students? – April 3, 2019 (The Daily Tar Heel)
The true cost of inclusive access – February 5, 2019 (Inside Higher Ed)
Access denied – September 21, 2016 (Student PIRGSs)
Some college students are angry they have to pay to do their homework – August 26, 2016 (Buzz Feed News)
Accessibility
The digital courseware accessibility problem – December 2, 2019 (Insider Higher Ed)
Federal Court rules in favor of blind students – August 21, 2019 (National Federation of the Blind)
Adoption
Donation to UTSA Libraries to fund free textbook program – May 21, 2021 (UTSA Today)
Faculty awareness of OER has increased for 5 years straight, yet adoption is flat – March19, 2021 (Campus Technology)
Awareness of open educational resources grows, but adoption doesn’t – March 18, 2021 (Inside Higher Ed)
More than half of all U.S. colleges and universities using OpenStax textbooks – September 11, 2019 (Campus Technology)
Advocacy
Sustaining Values and Scholarship: A Statement by the Provosts of the Big Ten Academic Alliance – June 10, 2019 (Big Ten Academic Alliance)
AI and copyright
Copyright office issues opinion letter on copyright in AI-generated images – March 8, 2023 (Authors Alliance)
Copyright office launches new artificial intelligence initiative – March 16, 2023 (NewsNet Issue No. 1004)
Booksellers/bookstores
March budget madness – March 21, 2019 (Eugene Weekly)
College stores adapt to change – February 15, 2019 (Publishers Weekly)
The true cost of inclusive access – February 5, 2019 (Inside Higher Ed)
A Barnes and Nobles Experience – December 10, 2018 (Open Oregon)
Copyright
Traditional Knowledge and the Commons: The open movement, listening, and learning – September 18, 2018 (Creative Commons, by Mehtab Khan)
Courses
Also see Partnerships.
Creative Commons licences
ACHE, ACCS to provide educators grants to get Creative Commons Certificate training – March 15, 2021 (Alabama Political Reporter)
Announcing the CC catalog API, version 1.0 – March 16, 2020 (Creative Commons)
U.S. appellate court enforces CC’s interpretation of NonCommercial – January 7 2020 (Creative Commons)
Our 4.0 license suite is now available in simplified and traditional Chinese – January 2, 2020 (Creative Commons)
Creative Commons license doesn’t bind commercial printers, Ninth Circuit rules – December 27, 2019 (Law.com/The Recorder)
Traditional Knowledge and the Commons: The open movement, listening, and learning – September 18, 2018 (Creative Commons, by Mehtab Khan)
Update on Great Minds v FedEx Office litigation involving BY-NC-SA – February 24, 2017 (Creative Commons)
Defending noncommercial uses: Great Minds v Fedex Office – August 30, 2016 (Creative Commons)
Debt
New university data show decrease in student loan debt as enrollment spikes – May 27, 2021 (New Texas Daily)
Divorce? Marry off your kid? As financial aid confusion grows, parents consider drastic measures – November 22, 2019 (Marion Star)
The latest victims of the student debt crisis – parents – May 11, 2019 (CNBC)
More parents struggle to repay loans they borrowed for their children’s education – December 11, 2018 (CNBC)
Student debt – Part 3 of 3: Current Pioneer Valley students prepare for payments after graduation – November 25, 2015 (Daily Hampshire Gazette)
Efficacy/student outcomes
SAC scores assess department data to measure scholastic achievement – March 29, 2019 (The Ranger)
Equity, diversity, inclusion (EDI)
Lumen Learning User Texting Center to examine equity in OER solutions – November 23, 2021 (Campus Technology)
Equity inspires 66 colleges to expand the reach of open educational resources – September 1, 2021(University Business)
We believe textbooks should be diverse and inclusive. Here’s what we’re doing about it – October 4, 2019 (OpenStax)
Funding
California Governor Signs Bill on College Access – July 29, 2021 (Inside Higher Ed)
California Governor Makes Push for Open Educational Resources – May 28, 2021 (EdWeek Market Brief)
Congress to renew open textbook pilot grant program with $7 million appropriation – December 17, 2019 (SPARC)
General
Course Hero quietly took over hosting Lumen’s OER content. They say it’s no big deal – July 11, 2022 (EdSurge)
ASMSU approves climate, sustainability and OER bills among 14 going to GA – December 10, 2020 (The State News)
Pandemic brings increased attention to Open Access Week – October 19, 2020 (WSU Insider)
Open Textbook Network to Change Name to ‘Open Education Network’ – July 23, 2020 (Open Education Network blog)
NEH announces new fellowships open book awards – June 15, 2020 (National Endowment for the Humanities)
The global health crisis is crystalizing the need for policies that support universal access to learning resources – April 4, 2020 (Agenparl)
Bassel Khartabil Fellowship Awarded to Tarek Loubani—Using Open Access to Combat COVID-19 – April 2, 2020 (Creative Commons)
Can colleges launch data science programs fast enough? – November 26, 2019 (EducationDive)
Open education … is closed – November 6, 2019 (Inside Higher Ed)
The Open Education Conference falls apart, leaving a community of passionate OER supporters – November 4, 2019 (IBL News)
Database of 7 million syllabi pulls back the curtain on higher ed – July 23, 2019 (EdScoop)
Transforming energy education in the digital age – July 8, 2019 (Forbes)
Carnegie Melon announces release of toolkit to kickstart global revolution in educational effectiveness – March 27, 2019 (CMU News)
Fleeing from ‘free’ (about Flat World Knowledge) – November 5, 2012 (Inside Higher Ed)
Generative AI
ChatGPT Has Changed Teaching. Our Readers Tell Us How. (Chronicles of Higher Education, December 11, 2023)
Inclusive Access
Also see Access codes/assessment platforms and Publishers/publishing on this page.
Journals
Rate of growth for CC BY articles in fully-OA journals continues for OASPA members – July 3, 2019 (Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association)
Libraries/librarians
UI libraries aim to make a ‘scholarly impact’ on student research – November 10, 2019 (The Daily Iowan)
As campuses move to embrace OER, college libraries become key players – January 4, 2018 (EdSurge)
Successful OER adoption models: Academic libraries leading the way – April 14, 2017 (SPARC)
Licences and subscriptions
MIT, guided by open access principles, ends Elsevier negotiations – June 11, 2020 (MIT News)
Open ed resources provider cries foul over attribution for its curriculum – May 22, 2019 (EdWeek Market Brief)
Subscribe to Open: Annual Review’s take on open access – April 2, 2019 (The Scholarly Kitchen)
UC drops Elsevier – March 1, 2019 (Inside Higher Ed)
In UC’s battle with the world’s largest scientific publisher, the future of information is at stake – December 7, 2018 (Los Angeles Times)
Open educational resources (OER)
11 Takeaways from the 2021 CHLOE Report – June23, 2021 (Inside Higher Ed). See “Takeaway No. 10: Open education resources got a pandemic bump.”
Discover 14 current online learning trends: More colleges will turn to open educational resources – January 26, 2021 (U.S. News)
Expanding OER statewide: North Carolina Community College-System – January 21, 2021 (AACC 21st Century Center)
Window of opportunity for OER – August 13, 2020 (Inside Higher Ed)
Freedom Learning Group and Instructure Partner on course catalog and OER developed by military spouses – June 2020 (The Learning Counsel)
NYS budget: Higher education – April 4, 2020 (News 10)
A looming challenge for OER? – March 10, 2020 (Inside Higher Education)
Open educational resources are ‘moving up the adoption ladder’ around the world – March 3, 2020 (EdSurge)
OER in Oregon shrinks cost of course materials by three-quarters – February 5, 2020 (Campus Technology)
Faculty and students find low cost, versatility in open educational resources – October 24, 2019 (Bates News)
Big Flickr announcement: All CC-licensed images will be protected – March 8, 2019 (Creative Commons)
OER use to triple over next 5 years – Sept 7, 2016 (Campus Technology)
Campus Tech Leaders Report More Support for Free Education Materials – October 29, 2015 (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
Maryland’s UMUC leads the way in international online education – September 30, 2015 (The Washington Diplomat)
Open textbooks
A best-selling textbook is now free – August 11, 2022 (Inside Higher Ed)
Department of Education announces latest round of open textbook pilot grants – January 15, 2021 (U.S. PIRG)
Department of Ed Releases App Process for Open Textbook Pilot Grants – October 5, 2020 (Campus Technology)
OpenStax to double OER textbooks – September 11, 2020 (Inside Higher Ed)
Free textbooks for law students – January 3, 2020 (Inside Higher Ed)
What exactly is a ‘free’ textbook, and other questions about open resources – October 1 2019 (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
More than half of all colleges and 2.94 million students using free OpenStax textbooks this year – September 11, 2019 (OpenStax)
Affordable College Textbook Act could save students millions on pricey books – April 4, 2019 (U.S. PIRG)
Durbin, King, Smith, Sinema, Neguse introduce bicameral legislation to help make college textbooks more affordable – April 4, 2019 (Dick Durbin, U.S. Senator, Illinois)
Open-access chemistry textbooks gain popularity – March 18, 2019 (Chemical & Engineering News)
College courses without textbooks? These colleges are giving it a shot. – June 15, 2016 (The Washington Post)
Partnerships
Odigia and MERLOT team up to empower institutions to create and deliver engaging course experiences – June 18, 2019 (mySA)
OER at the enterprise level – June 13, 2019 (Inside Higher Ed)
SUNY system enters 3-year partnership with Lumen Learning to support innovate teaching & Learning – June 12, 2019 (Lumen)
Carnegie Mellon, Lumen Learning partner to expand support for evidence-based learning materials – April 10, 2019 (CMU News)
Platforms
The end of the line for iTunes U? – June 12, 2019 (Inside Higher Ed)
Policy
Presidential support (with caveats) for OER – March 13, 2019 (Inside Higher Ed)
Printing
More professors ditch print – February 24, 2021 (Inside Higher Ed)
Pearson’s next chapter – July 16, 2019 (Inside Higher Ed)
Pearson signals major shift from print by making all textbook updates ‘digital first’ – July 15, 2019 (EdSurge)
Public domain
Millions of books are secretly in the public domain. You can download them free – August 6, 2019 (Motherboard, Tech by Vice)
Pixabay joins the Unsplash image licensing earthquake – January 2019 (PixelRockStar)
Publishers/publishing
Also see Partnerships,Printing, and Textbook costs on this page.
UC secures landmark open access deal with world’s largest scientific publisher – March 16, 2021 (University of California Press Room)
Lumen Learning, a proponent of OER, makes first acquisition to offer faculty coaching – June 16, 2020 (EdSurge)
Pearson stock falls as U.S. student textbook snub will hurt 2020 profits – February 21, 2020 (Barron’s)
Saying goodbye to CNX and hello to the next chapter – February 7, 2020 (OpenStax)
A legal challenge for inclusive access: Big textbook publishers and retailers are accused of squashing competition from independent college bookstores – January 27, 2020 (Inside Higher Ed)
Sharing frank feedback (Macmillan Learning) – January 13, 2020 (Inside Higher Ed)
Pearson faces “deep-rooted challenges” as CEO joins FTSE exodus – December 18, 2019 (Proactive)
Carnegie Mellon publishing agreement marks open access milestone – November 21, 2019 (CMU news)
College bookstores oppose Cengage-McGraw merger – December 4, 2019 (Inside Higher Ed)
Alternative textbook providers on the rise – November 4, 2019 (Inside Higher Ed)
How a university took on the textbook industry – October 24, 2019 (EdSurge)
SPARC urges Department of Justice to block merger between Cengage and McGraw-Hill – August 14, 2019 (SPARC News)
Pearson hack exposes thousands of students’ data – August 5 2019 (Inside Higher Ed)
Pushback on McGraw-Hill, Cengage merger highlights materials access debate – August 1, 2019 (EducationDive)
Publishers’ pending merger faces growing opposition – July 30, 2019 (Inside Higher Ed)
Q&A: Cengage/McGraw-Hill merger – July 29, 2019 (SPARC)
Pearson turns the page on college textbooks as digital courseware demand grows – July 16, 2019 (Pearson announcement)
MediaWeek: Publishing News – B&N bidding, EBSCO, Follett, Axel Springer, Paper Shortages, University Presses – June 14, 2019 (Personanondata)
OhioLINK breaks new ground creating central fund for open access publications with Wiley – June 12, 2019 (MarketScreener)
How merger of two textbook giants could impact course materials – May 3, 2019 (EdSurge)
Rival publishers join forces (Cengage and McGraw-Hill) – May 2, 2019 (Inside Higher Ed)
Planned merger of Cengage and McGraw-Hill could remake college-textbook market – May 1, 2019 (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
Shifting focus of publishers signals tough times for textbook authors – December 12, 2018 (Higher Ed)
New higher ed survey: OER may triple in use as primary courseware within five years – September 7, 2016 (Cengage press release)
Cengage contributes openly licensed content to OER community – July 16, 2018 (Cision)
What open-access publishing actually costs – November 9, 2015 (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
Boundless settles with publishers – December 19, 2013 (Inside Higher Ed)
3 major publishers sue open-education textbook start-up – April 5, 2012 (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
Religious colleges
Theology department receives $25,000 grant to lead “La Biblia” workshops – February 11, 2021 (The Rattler)
OER is Growing at Religious Colleges, But Raises Unique Challenges – October 24, 2018 (EdSurge)
Repositories
Also see Partnerships.
Return on investment (ROI)
Performance Audit Report: North Dakota University system open educational resources, Report No. NP-007-17 – September 4, 2018 (PDF)
Savings
Report: Open educational resources save students money at a manageable cost to colleges – February 25, 2020 (Diverse)
OER can save colleges money, too – February 20, 2020 (Inside Higher Ed)
University students saved $177 million in 2018 using OpenStax OER – February 22, 2019 (Ed Scoop)
Textbook costs
Lawmakers eye expanding electronic, open-source access to combat college textbook costs – November 8, 2021 (Florida Politics)
Pricey textbooks holding Fresno college students back. Could this fix the problem? – March 19, 2021 (The Fresno Bee)
Newsom calls textbooks “racket,” proposes money to create free ones – January 13, 2021 (Cal Matters)
Will online college courses help reduce textbook prices? – August 7, 2020 (Forbes)
Why it’s so hard to lower the cost of textbooks – July 28, 2020 (Ed Surge)
Why are textbooks so expensive? – March 4, 2020 (Teen Vogue)
That digital textbook? Your college has billed you for it – February 28, 2020 (The New York Times)
Colleges blamed for sneaking pricey textbooks onto student bills – February 27, 2020 (Bloomberg)
Hundreds of colleges automatically bill students for books. Is that fair? – February 27, 2020 (Money)
The textbook monopoly – February 24, 2020 (The Review)
Buying textbooks: ‘A sense of desperation’ – January 23, 2020
Textbook are pricey. So students are getting creative. – January 17, 2020 (The Washington Post)
OER, rental and subscriptions push college textbooks’ business to a further decline – December 17, 2019 (IBL News)
Why do college textbooks cost so much? 7 questions answered – August 23, 2019 (The Conversation)
Textbooks are getting cheaper for the first time in two decades – August 12, 2019 (The College Fix)
11 ways to cut your textbook costs – August 5, 2019 (Yahoo Finance!)
The radical transformation of the textbook – August 4, 2019 (Wired)
U.S. college education could be pricier with textbook merger – July 29, 2019 (Reuters)
Textbook spending continues slow decline – July 25, 2019 (Inside Higher Ed)
NACS report shows 14% decrease in spending on college course materials – July 24, 2019 (National Association of College Stores)
See “College Tuition and Fees” and College Textbooks” on Chart of the day or century? Price changes (January 1998 to January 2019), Selected US consumer goods and services, wages – July 12, 2019 (Carpe Diem)
The high cost of college textbooks, explained – March 6, 2019 (Vox)
The CD ‘chart of the century’ makes the rounds at the Federal Reserve – July 13, 2018 (AEIdeas)
As OER grows up, advocates stress more than just low cost – January 15, 2019 (Ed Surge)
80% of the textbook industry is dominated by 5 publishing companies that make books so expensive most students skip buying them – December 4, 2018 (Business Insider)
Report: Textbook pricing affects students’ rating of profs – November 6, 2018 (Campus Technology)
Between publishers and OER, Flatworld cuts a third path in the textbook market – July 4, 2018 (ELearning Inside)
Study: High textbook prices lead to poor grades – September 20, 2017 (Inside Higher Ed)
The crazy price of college textbooks is pushing more US universities to adopt an open-source solution – Sept 27, 2016 (Quartz)
The cost of college textbooks has increased 88% since Jan. 2006, Tuition and fees up 63% – September 3, 2016 (Info Docket)
Textbook trends: How U.S. college students source course materials – August 18, 2016 (Insights)
Bringing down the high cost of textbooks – June 26, 2016 (The Washington Post)
College textbook prices have risen 1041% since 1977 – August 6, 2015 (NBC)
Triaging textbook costs – August 4, 2015 (Inside Higher Ed)
In students’ minds, textbooks are increasingly optional purchases – July 9, 2015 (The Chronicle of Higher Education).
How college students battled textbook publishers to a draw, in 3 graphs – October 9, 2014 (NPR – Planet Money)
‘Required reading’: As textbook prices soar, students try to cope – September 15, 2013 (NBC)
Tuition
Also see Textbook costs on this page.
Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) programs
A look at ‘Zero-Textbook-Cost’ alternatives for community colleges – April 8, 2020 (Elk Grove Citizen)
Governor Polis’ ZTC challenge – 2015 (Colorado Department of Higher Education)