Temple University Libraries is celebrating Open Education Week from February 27 to March 3, 2023. Open Education Week is an annual celebration designed to raise awareness about open educational resources and practices. 

What are Open Educational Resources and Practices? 

Open educational resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that are free to read and reuse. Examples of OER include videos, images, lab activities, homework assignments, and textbooks. Open educational practices — also known as open pedagogy — use OER to support learning and invite students to be active participants in the teaching and learning environment, engaging in knowledge creation and sharing. 

Faculty who use OER instead of a commercial textbook can help save students hundreds of dollars a semester. Faculty who use OER can revise, remix, and build upon the content created by others, customizing the material to meet the needs of their particular class. This can aid in bringing about a more culturally responsive teaching and learning experience. 

Open Education Week Events & Activities 

To mark Open Education Week, Temple University Libraries will be offering the following events and activities: 

Contest for Students 

• Tell Us Your Textbook Affordability Story 
  Submit a true story about the most money you spent on textbooks in one semester. In a paragraph, audio/video clip, graphic design, or some photos, briefly share how this expense impacted you and what that money would have gone towards if you didn’t have to pay for textbooks. 
   
  You can win a day’s reservation to a study room in Charles Library or Ginsburg Library during final exams! Five winners will be randomly selected from all entries. Deadline to submit: March 17, 2023. 

Event for Faculty 

• Waffle OPEN House 
  Our featured faculty event is a tasty one! You’ve heard of Waffle House. Join us on Wednesday, March 1 at Charles Library for Waffle OPEN House.  
   
  Come to Suite 375 in Charles Library between 10:00 am and 12:00 pm for waffles, pancakes, coffee, and more – along with informal discussions with our librarians about open education practices and how to incorporate them into your instructional practice.   

Online Workshops 

• Textbook Affordability Project Application Information Session 
  Monday, February 27, 2023 | 12 pm | Register 
  Join us as we discuss the TAP grant award opportunities, application process, requirements, and answer any of your application questions. 
   
• Using Open Educational Resources in the Classroom 
  Tuesday, February 28, 2023 | 12 pm | Register 
  In this workshop aimed at faculty and teaching graduate students, we will provide an introduction to the world of open educational resources. We’ll discuss how to find high quality OER in your discipline and show you how these materials can be customized to suit the needs of your particular class and improve student success. 
   
• Copyright and Creative Commons 
  Tuesday, February 28, 2023 | 1 pm | Register 
  Join us as we cover the basics of Creative Commons licenses—what they are, how to find CC-licensed material, and how to license your own work. 
   
• Sharing Your Teaching and Learning Materials with TUScholarShare 
  Wednesday, March 1, 2023 | 1 pm | Register 
  Temple’s institutional repository, TUScholarShare, provides free online access to textbooks, syllabi, slide decks, tutorials, videos and more created by faculty and staff. In this workshop, you will learn about the benefits of sharing your materials and how to make them open and freely available online to teachers and learners beyond Temple. 
   
• How to Promote Your Open Scholarship 
  Thursday, March 2, 2023 | 12 pm | Register 
  This workshop will cover strategies how faculty can promote for promoting their open scholarship. This will cover building a scholarly profile, where to store your work, how to showcase your work on social media, and how to express this hard work in the promotion and tenure process. 

Accepting Applications for the Textbook Affordability Project Grant! 

Open Education Week is also a great time to learn more about Temple University Libraries’ Textbook Affordability Project, which provides grants ranging from $500 to $1,500 to faculty who adopt, adapt, or create free alternatives to commercial educational resources. Engaging in open educational practices, like replacing a traditional assignment with a renewable assignment, is also an option. Applications are being accepted until April 7, 2023. 

We hope you will join us for our Open Education Week events!