New subject: Now Open: Alberta's Provincial OER Publishing Program!

11 Mar 2020

Dear colleagues,

The University of Alberta Library and the Alberta OER Technology and
Infrastructure Working Group is pleased to announce the new Open Education
Alberta <https://pressbooks.library.ualberta.ca/> program.

 This no-fee provincial program seeks to eliminate barriers to adopting,
adapting and creating open textbooks by providing Alberta post-secondary
institutions with easy-to-use online publishing software. The University of
Alberta Library will host and maintain the Pressbooks publishing software,
and partner institutions will establish workflows and service models that
fit their unique community needs.

Thank you to Mount Royal University, MacEwan University, University of
Calgary, University of Lethbridge and the Southern Alberta Institute of
Technology for their contributions to the development of this program.

*Why do we need this program?*
Many institutions are eager to pursue the development of Open Education
initiatives on their campuses, but do not have access to the technical
infrastructure or staff to host the tools and software required to adapt or
create new content.  The UofA, which already manages a local OER publishing
program, is well-positioned to expand its hosting to support more content,
while institutions with special expertise in content and course creation,
open pedagogy, scholarly communications, and project management, can
contribute to the program through the development of content and supporting
materials. Because the published textbooks will be openly available to
anyone, the entire post-secondary community in Alberta can benefit from
this collaborative program.

*What are OER?*
Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that
allow free use and reuse, without charge. OERs often have a Creative
Commons license <https://creativecommons.org/> that states specifically how
the material may be used, reused, adapted, and shared.

*What is Pressbooks?*
Pressbooks <https://pressbooks.com/> is a simple publishing software for
the authoring and publication of multimedia-rich print books, ebooks, and
webbooks. The published books are shareable in multiple formats including
pdf, epub, and mobi and can easily be adapted and updated using the
Pressbooks software.

For more information, see https://pressbooks.library.ualberta.ca or contact
library.publishing(a)ualberta.ca

*Working Group Members*
Initiative Co-Leads (2019-present):
Michelle Brailey (University of Alberta) & Cari Merkley (Mount Royal
University)

Institutional Representatives and Contributors:
Robyn Hall (MacEwan University), Christie Hurrell (University of Calgary),
Jessica Norman (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology), Erika Smith
(Mount Royal University), Joerdis Weilandt (University of Lethbridge)

-- 
Michelle Brailey
*Digital Initiatives Projects Librarian, University of Alberta *
brailey(a)ualberta.ca

*The University of Alberta is situated on traditional Treaty 6
territory and homeland of the Métis peoples.*
Amiskwaciwâskahikan / ᐊᒥᐢᑲᐧᒋᕀᐋᐧᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ / Edmonton