Open Education Week

Săptămâna Educației Deschise 2025 în cadrul- Bibliotecii Naționale a Republicii Moldova
2025-03-03 - 2025-03-07 | Biblioteca Națională a Republicii Moldova, Chișinău, Republica Moldova, Moldova, Republic of
Biblioteca Naţională a Republicii Moldova / National Library of Moldova se alătură inițiativei globale Săptămâna Educației Deschise 2025, un eveniment internațional dedicat promovării și conștientizării beneficiilor educației deschise.
Biblioteca Națională a Republicii Moldova și-a propus organizarea multiplelor activități, fiind orientate spre creșterea gradului de conștientizare a importanței mișcării și impactului educației deschise asupra dezvoltării personalului de specialitate din biblioteci, dar și utilizatorilor acestora.
Implicarea BNRM la acest evenimentul global s-a axat pe principiul de adaptare a formării continue a personalului din biblioteci la cerințele mediilor informaționale și promovarea noilor modalități de a lărgi accesul la educație pentru toți.
Programul activităților a inclus organizarea unei expoziţii de publicaţii din colecția de specialitate a BNRM „Biblioteca și Educația Deschisă: resurse, platforme, practici”, de asemenea s-a reușit organizarea unor Traininguri profesionale cu tematica:
„Mediul online – mediu sigur pentru bibliotecari”;
„Resurse digitale de învățare disponibile prin intermediul platformei MLearn”;
„Platforma Zoom pentru bibliotecarii formatori”.
În cadrul acestui eveniment a fost organizată și o conferință cu tema : „Biblioteca Națională a Republicii Moldova – promotor fidel al Educației Deschise”.
În acest context, BNRM a reușit să crească gradul de conștientizare asupra importanței educației deschise pentru bibliotecari și utilizatori.

Free Books: Open Publishing at Concordia
2025-03-03 08:00 - 2025-04-30 17:00 (America/Toronto) | Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
To celebrate Open Education Month, Concordia Library is pleased to present a new display highlighting open publishing at the Library and Concordia University Press (CUP). Together, the Library and CUP collaborate to make scholarship and education free and accessible within and beyond the university.
Open Educational Resources (OER) are digital resources for teaching, learning, and research that are made available for use and re-purposing. They increase the variety of instructional resources in students’ learning experiences while lowering the financial barriers. OER in the form of open textbooks are a hallmark of Concordia’s OER program. Although open-access publications from university presses often do not permit repurposing in the same way that open textbooks do, they are nonetheless free for students and can be adopted in courses. In parallel with open publishing, Course Reserves also offer a free option for students.
This collaborative display illustrates how open education and open scholarship can nurture each other. As higher education becomes increasingly costly, students stand to gain from the cost-saving benefits of viable alternatives to commercial textbooks. Meanwhile, professors can choose to deepen their research and pedagogical impact by developing open-access and knowledge-mobilization plans to benefit students and the wider public.
Organized in six sections, this display introduces students and faculty to the parallels between CUP and the Library’s OER program. In the vitrine and the digital counter, you will find awareness efforts alongside physical and digital books from CUP and Concordia’s OER program. QR codes make these titles easily accessible, while OER and CUP buttons and slogans promote the importance of open publishing.
Finally, the horizons of free course material options can be expanded through student advocacy and faculty pedagogy. We encourage students to nominate a course for open education and show their support for open publishing by wearing one of our buttons found at the Ask-Us Desk. We encourage faculty to consider open textbook grants, course reserves, and open-access university presses.
Let’s reduce barriers to higher education together!
Curated by the Library’s OER Team and Concordia University Press, the exhibition will be on display from March 3 until April 30, 2025. Special thanks to Zo Kopyna, Chhayhee Sok, Saelan Twerdy, Meredith Carruthers and Rachel Harris.
Concordia University Library supports open scholarship, education, and science. As part of this commitment, the Library leads the University’s OER Program and continues to develop open scholarship initiatives and services, such as our open guides and institutional repository.
Concordia University Press is a non-profit publisher of peer-reviewed books. Concordia University Press is committed to barrier-free scholarship and our titles are available as free, open-access e-books, as well as for sale in thoughtfully designed print editions.

Open for Student Success Symposium
2025-03-07 09:30 - 16:30 (America/New_York) | Online with Georgia State University Library, Atlanta, GA, United States
Join Georgia State University Library for Our
3rd Annual Open Education Week Celebration,
where professionals and students unite with the common purpose
to learn and share insights about open and affordable education.
The Open for Student Success Symposium
March 7, 2025
9:30 AM – 4:30 PM ET
Free, Online, and Open to All
Register Here
The symposium’s theme this year is
Open Education: Fueling Equity in Learning
And we will have the honor of welcoming two keynote speakers:

Paola Corti, Open Education Community Manager at SPARC Europe and Project Manager for METID at Politecnico di Milano, will share how her work is breaking barriers in the Open Education Movement by harnessing an international network of librarians. Paola will present her keynote, titled “Opening Knowledge: A Natural Approach,” exploring the practice of lifelong learning and its impact on both students and teachers. She will also share tools to discuss the concept of openness, including the ENOEL Playing Cards and related gameplays.

Virginia Clinton-Lisell is Associate Professor of Education, Health, and Behavior with the College of Education & Human Development at the University of North Dakota and Primary Researcher for the Open Education Research Fellowship. She holds a master’s degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from New York University and a doctorate in Educational Psychology from the University of Minnesota. Virginia will present her keynote, titled “The Inaccessibility of Access Codes: Student Experiences with Online Homework Systems,” sharing findings from a survey of almost a thousand college students about the costs of homework access codes and their impact on student finances, grades, and stress levels.
See the full event schedule at:
research.library.gsu.edu/open

Why Zero-Textbook-Cost Degrees Are Vital to Your Distance Education Strategy
2025-03-07 13:00 - 13:30 (America/New_York) | Ellucian, Reston, VA, United States
As colleges and universities expand and refine their online offerings, affordability remains a critical factor in student enrollment and retention. Zero-Textbook-Cost (ZTC) degrees not only reduce financial barriers but also enhance accessibility, equity, and student success in distance education. This session explores how implementing ZTC degrees can strengthen your institution’s online strategy, improve course completion rates, and leverage emerging technologies to create dynamic, cost-effective, and personalized learning experiences.

Alternatives to Open: Zero Cost Textbooks
2025-03-07 14:00 - 15:00 (America/Toronto) | Fanshawe College, London, Ontario, Canada
Brought to you by Collab4Open
In addition to open educational resources, the costs of learning materials can be reduced by leveraging library resources and exceptions to copyright. In this session, we will provide an overview of how educators can use these alternatives to OER to support low-cost student learning. Topics discussed will include barriers to OER adoption, using library materials in teaching, and fair dealing for education.

Reduce Student Costs, Boost Success: Open Resources for the Win
2025-03-07 15:00 - 16:00 (America/New_York) | J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College, Parham Road Campus 1651 E. Parham Road, Richmond, VA, United States
Come join us and discover a wealth of open educational resources available through the VIVA Textbook Faculty Portal, the Open Textbook Library as well as other OER repositories. During this session, you will learn about navigating OER repositories and metafinders to find resources for your classes.
We will also discuss open pedagogy approaches and assignments, as well as encouraging participation by practicing with editing Wikipedia using academic resources.
OER Guide we will use during the session: https://libguides.reynolds.edu/oerstart
