Open Education Week is an international forum that raises awareness to the need for affordable access to educational materials. Undergraduate textbooks and learning materials are the fastest growing expense for students worldwide in the last two decades. Here in the US, they have risen at a rate that exceeds even that of tuition increases. Combined with the high cost of other student expenses, expensive learning materials often prevent students, particularly from under-represented groups and less privileged backgrounds from completing their education. This situation has been made worse by COVID-19, which has hurt many students financially and made it even harder for them to purchase required learning materials. Open Education Week encourages the creation, modification and sharing of free educational resources online through open licensing as a solution. A collaborative, community driven forum, it calls for librarians, educators, and other concerned people to spend one week sharing ideas on how education can be improved using free online resources in March of each year.
In the collaborative spirit of Open Education Week 2021 Clemson Libraries is working with campus partners OTEI, the College of Undergraduate Studies, statewide partners Anderson University, PASCAL (South Carolina’s academic library consortium) and other talented individuals to organize 5 webinar events for Clemson faculty from March 1-5. The webinars provide faculty ideas on how they can improve their online and hybrid teaching using openly licensed technologies that are completely free for students. They also give faculty advice on copyright issues related to teaching. Please use the links below to see what events we are offering and register for them.
https://pascalsc.libguides.com/c.php?g=842027&p=8170966
https://calendar.clemson.edu/event/pressbooks_demonstration_open_publishing#.YCQkDhNKg0o
We look forward to seeing you, hearing your thoughts and providing you advice!