Introducing “Bridging the Gap: The OER Workforce Playbook for Higher Education and Industry”
Victoria Brame
Dear Open Community,
The Rebus Foundation, in partnership with the DOERS Collaborative, is proud to announce the release of Bridging the Gap: The OER Workforce Playbook for Higher Education and Industry, an open peer-reviewed and edited resource designed to help educators and employers co-create workforce-aligned Open Educational Resources (OER).
Structured in four modular chapters, the playbook provides practical tools for both employers and educators to take action and understand how OER can address workforce skills gaps. At the heart of the playbook is SKILLBRIDGE, a shared framework that offers readers actionable pathways to integrating OER into workforce development initiatives, ensuring students graduate confident and prepared while employers gain work-ready talent that meets evolving industry needs.
Developed through extensive input from workshop attendees, focus group participants, and facilitators, the playbook reflects the collective expertise of the DOERS Workforce Working Group and the broader open education community. Our thanks go out to everyone who contributed to this playbook and to the open education community for the supportive culture of sharing and learning! We hope this resource will be useful to you in different ways.
"A business-friendly explanation of how free, customizable learning materials (OER) can help businesses. In a time where common skills and knowledge are needed for a wide variety of workplaces, shared materials can help everyone." -Dr. Hans Aagard, Boise State University
Bridging the Gap is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
The Rebus Foundation is a Canadian Registered Charity and global non-profit dedicated to advancing open publishing, OER, open pedagogy, and joyful learning. DOERS is a collaborative group of higher education systems and statewide/provincewide initiatives committed to student success through OER.
Please share the Playbook and our release announcement in your channels and networks:
- Release Announcement: https://rebus.foundation/blog/2026/8/31/announcing-bridging-the-gap
- Book URL (includes download files): https://press.rebus.community/workforceoerplaybook/