The OG Open and Equitable Access to Scholarship Working Group is excited to announce that the Oberlin Group has joined the Open Education Network as a consortial member. This brings us a number of benefits:
- Libraries that already have an institutional membership that’s not through another consortium will be eligible for a two-thirds reduction of their individual dues at the next renewal. For 2025-26, Institutional members will be charged $638/year rather than $1,914.
- Up to 9 delegates from across the Oberlin Group who will gain access to the OEN Google Group and Community Hub
- The ability to post reviews in the Open Textbook Library
- A Data Dashboard for the consortium
- Access to the annual OEN Engage conference Community of Practice
- Up to 5 Pressbooks projects each year
- Manifold Publishing Platform Access
For institutions that are not already an OEN member, nine delegate positions are available that provide access to OEN community resources. You can also learn more about OEN through this onboarding course. If you’re considering volunteering to be the administrator or a delegate, you may want to take a closer look at the sections on managing the data dashboard and taking advantage of the delegate tools.
As a consortial member, we will need someone to volunteer to be the administrator for our data dashboard. In exchange for managing the dashboard and administering the OER review process, the administrator will gain access to the OEN Google Group email list and the archive of past content. This is an excellent opportunity for someone working in scholarly communication or in supporting open educational resources to join a vibrant community of practice. If you’re interested in the administrator opportunity, there are three upcoming orientation events:
- April 1: New Member meet and Greet at 2 p.m. Central time
- April 14: Data Dashboard intro at at 1:30 p.m. Central time
- April 17: Data Dashboard deep dive at 12 noon Central time
If you’re interested in serving as the Oberlin Group’s OEN administrator or as an OEN delegate, please contact Martin Garnar or Jill Livingston, co-chairs of the OEAS Working Group, and if you know someone who might be good in either of those roles, feel free to nominate them!
Stipends for Reviewing
And wait… there’s more.
As part of this initiative, the Oberlin Group is launching a pilot program to encourage reviewing of open educational resources (OERs) by providing stipends to the reviewers. OERs are much more likely to be adopted if they’ve been reviewed, so these reviews are an important part of promoting the principles of open education.
Reviewers will receive $250 for a review of a title in the Open Textbook Library submitted in coordination with the institution’s Open Education Network administrator, or by working with the Oberlin Group consortial OEN dashboard administrator. If your institution already offers stipends for OER reviews, we encourage you to apply for those stipends before requesting one from the Oberlin Group. For this pilot year, we have 12 stipends available. Funding will be open to those who submit their review by June 30, 2025 and will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. Priority for stipends is first given to instructors of credit-bearing courses at an Oberlin Group of Libraries institution. If funds remain, then people in a position to influence adoption of required materials are eligible.
Spring 2025 stipend program has filled, thanks for your interest!
If you have questions about this stipend program, please contact the OG data dashboard administrator, Louann Terveer lterveer@macalester.edu