Open Education Week 2013 - Activities.

1. Outreach Info for
Open Education
Week Volunteers
MARCH 11-15, 2013

2. Thank You For Volunteering To Help With
Open Education Week Outreach!
In this packet, you'll find:
• Some suggestions about scenarios in which you
could do some open education outreach
• Some talking points on open education
• Links to more information, if you'd like to get
yourself a bit more background
• Links to report back on your activities (Link)

3. Possible Scenarios
• Speak at a department or group meeting
• Post on Facebook/Twitter/etc
• Ask a friend or colleague out for coffee
• Organize your own outreach activity
• Share an open textbook you found interesting in
the catalog (http://open.umn.edu)

4. Basic Talking Points
• Open Textbooks can save students hundreds of dollars a
year. Many students decide not to purchase a textbook.
(Additional Statistics - http://z.umn.edu/opened)
• Open Textbooks are another alternative for faculty members
to choose from and their quality can be as high as that of
traditional textbooks.
• Having an open license allows for greater textbook
customization. Faculty are able to choose chapters from
different open textbooks freely and create a customized
textbook.
• There are many ways in which a book can become openly
licensed and ways in which open textbooks are produced.
Some production models are very similar to the traditional
model while others are more innovative (Booksprints).

5. Advanced Talking Points
• The University recently created the Open Textbook Catalog which
will help faculty locate textbooks and have a better idea of the
quality of each of open textbooks - http://open.umn.edu
• Bill such as SB 1052 and SB 1053 in California have influenced the
drafting of similar legislation in Minnesota (HF 789). MSLC, GAPSA,
and MSA are currently collaborating the MSUSA in their state capitol
lobbying efforts to support open textbook legislation.
• Bills have been passed by the different student bodies in support of
Open Textbooks.
• The cost of textbooks has continued to rise at a rate much higher
than that of inflation. As students face difficulties in paying for the
cost of higher education it is important to find ways to reduce costs
while maintaining quality

6. More on Outreach
• To pick up an open education shirt go to Coffman 234 and
235. There should be shirts available. In you have any
additional questions contact gapsa@umn.edu and
msa@umn.edu. Feel free to also contact Alfonso Sintjago
(sintj002@umn.edu) for additional information.
• We also have fliers about open education and open
textbooks available for pickup in Coffman 234 and 235 during
OE Week. You can pick up multiple copies if you want to
hand them out yourself!
• Please let us know what you did for OE Week, at
http://z.umn.edu/oeweekreport