Lesley Gumb joined the New England of Higher Education (NEBHE) in late September 2019 as its Open Education Fellow to help build upon the grassroots efforts that have been underway for years in the Northeast aiming to lessen the burden that textbook costs place on higher education students and their families. Like so many of her colleagues doing…

Among many variables associated with the chaos and stress of the pandemic, a lack of direct access to learning materials like textbooks has arisen as one of the major roadblocks to student learning in the era of COVID-19. This nation has continued to observe a sharp rise in textbook prices since 1977, which leaves many students enrolled at…

The 17-institution Connecticut State Colleges & Universities System (CSCU) formed a systemwide open educational resources (OER) Council in 2017 that was primarily focused on the adoption of no-cost or low-cost (NOLO) course materials as a means to provide equitable access to learning materials. The CSCU consortium of library directors…

When COVID-19 shut down college campuses, faculty and staff knew that many students would be challenged by the quick transition to emergency remote learning. What may have surprised many faculty, though, was the impact that COVID-19 had on students' basic needs and how that impact so thoroughly halted their ability to continue their learning. For…

In the following Q&A, NEBHE's Fellow for Open Education Lindsey Gumb asks Heather Miceli, an adjunct professor at Roger Williams University (RWU) and Johnson & Wales University (JWU), about her integration of OER-enabled pedagogy in her general education science course, which has helped push the narrative of Open Educational Resources…

In the following Q&A, NEBHE's [New England Board of Higher Education's] Fellow for Open Education, Lindsey Gumb, takes the pulse of Open Education in Rhode Island with two key leaders in the field: Dragan Gill, who is a Rhode Island College reference librarian and co-chair of the Rhode Island Open Textbook Initiative, and Daniela Fairchild,…

In just over a year, Massachusetts public colleges and universities have galvanized a statewide movement to adopt more comprehensive use of Open Educational Resources (OER). There had been prior nascent efforts to increase the utilization of OER in Massachusetts including: the launch of the Open Education Initiative at UMass Amherst, the MA #Go…

The shift to online learning has challenged instructors to create courses that are as engaging online as they are in person. As many faculty prepare for online learning again this fall, open educational resources (OER) can be part of the solution to help students stay safe and be successful. OER are free and openly licensed online teaching and…

In the following Q&A, NEBHE's Fellow for Open Education Lindsey Gumb asks Thomas College Provost Thomas Edwards about the Waterville, Maine, college's plans to use a new grant from the Davis Education Foundation. The college's focus on melding access and affordability through OER (Open Educational Resources) is especially relevant in the…

This article takes a first look at the major issues and trends that are currently being seen in 2019 emerging in the region's legislatures related to higher education and workforce development. Topics include: affordability, student loan debt, and college closures/mergers/acquisitions/collaborations. Other bills touch on emerging issues:…