Greetings!
I hope you and yours are well.
This announcement is a few months overdue. Calibrating to the challenges of the pandemic and of 2020, I have found myself behind in multiple aspects. I apologize for the delay in communication.
A warm welcome to new folks!
Reach:
I am proud, honored, and humbled to announce that the main Blueprint text ( Blueprint for Success in College and Career v. 1.3 ) now reaches over 10,000 students each semester and has been adopted in over 30 colleges and universities. Students are saving more than $1 million each semester with instructors like many of you and your colleagues choosing high quality, free, openly licensed textbooks. I am inspired to continue to keep the Blueprint texts updated and relevant, and I appreciate your feedback and recommendations.
OE Global Conference:
The Open Education Global Conference (virtual) is November 16-20 and I will be presenting a session called “The Blueprint Community,” outlining how a community approach led to a successful, high quality, award winning, openly licensed, and widely adopted text. I am inviting all contributors (volunteers, mentors, adopters, adapters, etc.) to participate in the creation of a compilation video which will be shown during the conference session, giving a behind the scenes look at the diverse roles and processes used to create the book, and recognizing and honoring the many contributors.
My respectful ask is this: If you are interested in participating, please e-mail me (dave.dillon@gcccd.edu) a one minute (or less) video (in .mp4 or .mov format) by Friday, November 6th, introducing yourself, your title and college, and explaining your role with Blueprint. Please also include, an e-mail statement that your video is openly licensed CC by attribution (or permission for it to be edited). The entire video being shown for the conference session must not exceed five minutes so I will need to splice the videos received. (Thanks to Tom Priester and a few of the SUNY folks who have already sent in a few videos!).
For those who may be interested in virtually attending the conference, registration is only $50 and the deadline to register is October 30th.
I would also like to share that Amy Hofer (OpenOregon) and Apurva Ashok (Rebus Community) won well deserved Support Specialist Awards and will be presented with those during the OE Global conference. Amy and Apurva’s footprints, guidance, attention to detail, and support are reflected all over the Blueprint texts and I am thrilled to see their continued contributions to the open community recognized.
Life in Quarantine Collaboration:
The Blueprint projects continue to provide opportunities for collaboration. Three graduate students at Stanford: Nelson Shuchmacher Endebo, Farah Bazzi, and Ellis Schriefer are primary investigators for a project inviting global citizens to share their personal written accounts of how the pandemic has affected them. These stories are openly licensed and are archived: https://poeticmedia.stanford.edu/life-quarantine-witnessing-global-pandemic. This archive has also been added to the Cultural Competency chapter in the Blueprint main text. Nelson, Farah, Ellis, and I will be presenting at OE Global on our collaboration and look forward to continuing to see how instructors utilize the LiQ project and stories to teach lessons on cultural competency and global citizenship.
Recency and Relevancy:
Observing that many classes are being offered online due to the pandemic and also feeling a responsibility to address racism, I realize it is critically important to strive for relevant content for our students. Keeping the content recent and relevant is an on-going commitment and continues to evolve. Since the beginning of this project, I have sought out diversity in authors, as I believe that students value representation of themselves in textbooks, and I am committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. If you have not already seen the curator video announcement added to the Introductions of the Blueprint texts in August: https://press.rebus.community/blueprint2/front-matter/introduction/, I welcome your feedback, insight, criticism, and recommendations.
Adaptions:
Jan Coville from Granite State College has made an adaptation of the Blueprint Career OER text. Her adaption is called Career Decision Making for Adults. I think this is an exciting aspect of open pedagogy and benefit of open licensing. I applaud Jan’s work and look forward to seeing future adaptions. If you or someone you know is working on an adaption of one of the Blueprint texts, please share - I would love to know about it. Martha: Would you have an update on Lansing Community College’s adaption?
Spring 2021 Blueprint Conference:
Plans for the first ever Blueprint Conference are underway and I invite anyone interested in conference planning to please let me know. The conference will be a one day virtual event and we’re still identifying when may be best to accommodate the most folks who would be interested and able to attend. I’m hopeful this will provide an opportunity for sharing assignments, resources, best practices, professional development, networking, and sharing the value of open pedagogy. Please complete this quick (less than a minute) surveyby November 16. Thank you!
Frequently asked for items:
Most of the questions I receive from adopters and potential adopters are regarding syllabus examples, print copies, and ancillaries. Those resources are a continued work in progress and most of the content is available in this google drive:
Ancillaries: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jkwHgNDRLeAmVCJdcwlF48eONBPdxzQ9
Adoptions Survey:
If you are using one of the Blueprint texts and have not already completed this adoption survey, please complete it. It is helpful to be able to track instructor and student use for potential future funding and for demonstrating the need and value for OER. (If you are not sure if you have filled out the form or not, please ask me). Thank you!
Audio Project:
While some plans have been delayed due to not having on ground access, developments continue. Thanks again to Lee Pierce and Breanne Ahearn-Scott for spearheading this project. The current audio version (chapters read by students) can be found in the Ancillaries google drive.
Spanish Translation:
There is a team ready to roll on this and are continuing to search for funding – mostly to compensate the translator(s).
Other General Resources:
I recently co-presented a webinar titled Copyright, Fair Use, and Piracy. Where Does OER Fit In? with the amazing Walter Butler, librarian at Pasadena City College (webinar and slides are available at the link above).
The Academic Senate for California Community College OER Initiative has presented many webinars regarding OER. If you are interested, you can find upcoming and archived webinars.
Finally, I recently gave a presentation for foster youth students titled Online Learning: Secrets and Strategies for Success. As I think it may have broader value, I have included it in the Front Matter for the Blueprint texts (in “Introduction” in two the Blueprint texts; “What to Expect for the Student” in the Career Decision Making Blueprint text) and in the correlating Appendix B Multimedia areas.
If you would like to be removed from this list, please let me know.
Thank you for your continued enthusiasm and support.
Dave Dillon
Curator and co-author of Blueprint OER College Success texts
ANTI-RACIST
BLACK LIVES MATTER
ASCCC OERI Area D Regional Lead
Counseling Faculty / Professor of Counseling
Grossmont College
Google voice: (619) 375-2627
twitter: @blueprint_text
pronouns: he/him/his
Resources for emotional support and well being:
It’s wonderful to see how this project is growing and taking on new forms as an audiobook, adapted versions, ancillary materials, translations, etc.