Outreach Info for

Open Education

Week Volunteers

MARCH 11-15, 2013

Thank You For Volunteering To Help With

Open Education Week Outreach!

In this packet, you'll find:

• Some suggestions about scenarios in which you

could do some open education outreach

• Some talking points on open education

• Links to more information, if you'd like to get

yourself a bit more background

• Links to report back on your activities (Link)

Possible Scenarios

• Speak at a department or group meeting

• Post on Facebook/Twitter/etc

• Ask a friend or colleague out for coffee

• Organize your own outreach activity

• Share an open textbook you found interesting in

the catalog (http://open.umn.edu)

Basic Talking Points• Open Textbooks can save students hundreds of dollars a

year. Many students decide not to purchase a textbook.

(Additional Statistics - http://z.umn.edu/opened)

• Open Textbooks are another alternative for faculty members

to choose from and their quality can be as high as that of

traditional textbooks.

• Having an open license allows for greater textbook

customization. Faculty are able to choose chapters from different open textbooks freely and create a customized

textbook.

• There are many ways in which a book can become openly

licensed and ways in which open textbooks are produced. Some production models are very similar to the traditional

model while others are more innovative (Booksprints).

Advanced Talking Points

• The University recently created the Open Textbook Catalog which

will help faculty locate textbooks and have a better idea of the

quality of each of open textbooks - http://open.umn.edu

• Bill such as SB 1052 and SB 1053 in California have influenced the

drafting of similar legislation in Minnesota (HF 789). MSLC, GAPSA,

and MSA are currently collaborating the MSUSA in their state capitol

lobbying efforts to support open textbook legislation.

• Bills have been passed by the different student bodies in support of

Open Textbooks.

• The cost of textbooks has continued to rise at a rate much higher

than that of inflation. As students face difficulties in paying for the

cost of higher education it is important to find ways to reduce costs

while maintaining quality

More on Outreach

• To pick up an open education shirt go to Coffman 234 and

235. There should be shirts available. In you have any

additional questions contact gapsa@umn.edu and

msa@umn.edu. Feel free to also contact Alfonso Sintjago

(sintj002@umn.edu) for additional information.

• We also have fliers about open education and open

textbooks available for pickup in Coffman 234 and 235 during

OE Week. You can pick up multiple copies if you want to

hand them out yourself!

• Please let us know what you did for OE Week, at

http://z.umn.edu/oeweekreport