Open Educational Resources: Advocacy

1. College Open Textbooks (http://collegeopentextbooks.org/)

• A collection of colleges, governmental agencies, education non-profits, and other education-related organizations that are focused on the mission of driving the awareness and advocacy for open textbooks.
• Provides training for instructors seeking to utilize open educational resources.

2. Let Congress know you support the Affordable College Textbook Act 

• The Affordable College Textbook Act (S.1704/H.R.3538) will reduce the cost of textbooks at U.S. colleges and universities by expanding the use of open educational resources (OER) - free, online academic materials that everyone can use, adapt and share.  The bill was introduced in November 2013 by Senators Dick Durbin and Al Franken in the Senate and Representatives Rubén Hinojosa and George Miller in the House.
• More information at the SPARC OER site 

3. Make Textbooks Affordable (http://Maketextbooksaffordable.org)

• Aims to develop a textbook market with both a vibrant used book market and a plethora of learning content that is priced and sold fairly.
• Provides latest news, studies and solutions on cost of college textbooks; advocacy opportunities for professors (Open Textbooks Statement!) and students (Actions for Students).

4. Cape Town Open Education Declaration (http://www.capetowndeclaration.org/read-the-declaration)

• A statement of principle, a statement of strategy and a statement of commitment
• To spark dialogue, to inspire action and to help the open education movement grow
• To develop further strategies, especially around open technology and teaching practices

5. Open Education Community (http://opened.creativecommons.org/Main_Page)

• Gateway to information about the open education movement and Open Educational Resources
• Intended for anyone interested in open education, the site provides links to resources, organizations, events, people, and more

6. The Hewlett Foundation (http://www.hewlett.org/)

• Funds grants for Open Educational Resources since 2006
• Provides resources and also makes their funded OER proposals publicly available

7. OER Support from SPARC (http://sparc.arl.org/issues/oer)

• SPARC®, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, is an international alliance of academic and research libraries working to correct imbalances in the scholarly publishing system.  >
• This page highlights SPARC's work in supporting OER work.

8. Open Knowledge Foundation (http://www.okfn.org/

• Promoting Open Knowledge in a Digital Age 
• Working on open knowledge projects, such as http://www.openeconomics.net/ or Open Shakespeare
• Providing infrastructure, and potentially a home, for open knowledge projects, communities and resources. For example, we run the KnowledgeForge service and Comprehensive Knowledge Archive Network
• Acting at UK, European and international levels on open knowledge issues.
• Running open knowledge events, such as OKCon