MORE AND MORE OPEN: The United States Department of Education's effort to advocate for open educational resource (OER) usage is gaining momentum. Back in October 2015, the #GoOpen initiative kicked off with 10 school districts pledging to use OERs during the 2016-2017 school year. But at a February 26 event, the Education Department announced some new additions to their #GoOpen family:
- 21 more school districts have taken the #GoOpen pledge;
- Three districts have also become OER ambassadors (addition to an original six districts); and
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1314 states (Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin) are launching #GoOpen initiatives statewide.
"We're asking a really small ask: Replace one textbook with OER by next year," said Andrew Marcinek, chief open education advisor at the DOE, in an interview with THE Journal. "We hope this builds proof points and exemplars for other districts to follow."
