Open Course Library: Monday Press Call and Launch
Cable Green
See below.
Cable Green
Director of Global Learning
From: Tom Caswell <caswe...@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 11:07 PM
Subject: Open Course Library Monday Press Call and Launch
To: oer-advocac...@googlegroups.com
OER Advocates:
We are pleased to announce the launch of the Open Course Library on a press call this Monday (details below).
Please share with other media outlets but be strategic as there are only 100 phone lines available for the call. The call will be recorded and shared under an open license.
We are thrilled that DOE will offer a supporting statement to press who attend the call. Nicole Allen (Student PIRGs) will also share some exciting textbook savings data from our first 42 adopters (our original OCL authors).
MEDIA ADVISORY
For immediate release: October 26, 2011
Made in Washington, Open to the World: Washington State
community and technical colleges
to release first phase of low-cost digital courses in groundbreaking higher
education venture
WHAT: Media conference call to announce launch of phase one of the Open Course Library (OCL).
Last fall, across the state of Washington, teams of community and technical college faculty, instructional designers, and librarians set about to arm the system’s highest-enrolled college courses with high-quality, low-cost educational materials (shareable course materials, including syllabi, course activities, readings, assessments).
Their challenge? Create those educational materials for 42 courses with costs to individual students limited to no more than $30 per course (versus the typical $100-plus textbook cost).
Washington’s community and technical college system has built a national reputation as leaders in Open Education Resources (OER) through its Strategic Technology Plan and Open Licensing Policy.
Widely acknowledged as “groundbreaking” by the educational technology community, the OCL is expected to dramatically reduce textbook costs for students in the state and nation. Once released, the materials will be openly-licensed worldwide and freely available for use by the state’s 34 public community and technical colleges, four-year colleges and universities, and anyone else in the world.
The project is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Washington State Legislature.
WHO: During the call, reporters will get in-depth information about the OCL, new estimates of textbook savings to students and families, opportunity for question and answer.
o Shaunta Hyde, State Board member, Director of Global Aviation Policy for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, The Boeing Company
o Tom Caswell, SBCTC, project lead and open education policy associate
o Reuven Carlyle, Washington State Representative, 36th District (D-Seattle), early champion of OER in the state
o Nicole Allen, Student Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs) textbook advocate, and a nationally recognized expert on textbook costs
o Michael Kenyon, Green River Community College mathematics instructor
o Lindsey Cassels, Clover Park Technical College medical esthetics student
WHEN: Monday, Oct. 31, 2011, 10 a.m. Pacific (11 a.m. Mountain, 12 p.m. Central, 1 p.m. Eastern)
WHERE: To participate in the telephone press conference, call (800) 868-1837. At prompt, enter code: 437262#
CONTACT: Tom Caswell, Open Education Policy Associate, cell: (360) 747-7301, tcas...@sbctc.edu
Sherry Nelson, SBCTC Communications, (360) 704-4308, slne...@sbctc.edu
Background:
Open Course Library http://opencourselibrary.org FAQs http://www.opencourselibrary.org/about/faq
Student Public Interest Research Groups http://www.studentpirgs.org/textbooks
Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges http://sbctc.edu/
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation http://www.gatesfoundation.org/postsecondaryeducation/Pages/default.aspx
# # #
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Tom Caswell
Open Education Policy Associate, SBCTC
(w) http://opencourselibrary.org (p) 360-747-7301
(b) http://tomcaswell.com (t) @tom4cam