AMHERST, Mass. – The University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries will host the Northeast Regional Open Educational Resources (OER) Summit June 13-14 on the lower level of the Campus Center.

The Northeast Regional OER Summit is a multi-state collaborative event for new and experienced OER advocates, offering the opportunity to learn and share effective practices in awareness building, implementation, collaboration, strategy and research.

David Wiley, chief academic officer of Oregon-based OER company Lumen Learning, is the keynote speaker. A prominent and influential thinker in the world of open education, Wiley is credited with developing the concept of open pedagogy. His blog, Iterating Toward Openness, explores OER, open licensing and student success. 

“David Wiley is a visionary thinker on OER issues and it is a real treat to have him here at UMass Amherst where he has been a great influence on our OER efforts since 2011,” said the libraries’ digital projects manager Jeremy Smith.

The first day of the summit, Tuesday, June 13, is geared toward campus leaders involved in defining and driving campus strategy around open education initiatives. The June 14 program is beneficial to all those engaged in higher education-focused open education initiatives, including faculty, librarians, instructional technologists, administrators and other campus leaders.  

“This is the first large-scale regional OER event in the Northeast and really speaks to the maturity and growth of the OER movement across the U.S. in the last five years,” said Marilyn Billings, head of the libraries’ scholarly communications office and pioneer in the field of OER.

Sessions will address OER-related topics from diverse perspectives: librarians, faculty, instructional designers, administrators, funding agencies, activists and advocates and will range from introductory to advanced and address relevant and timely topics such as copyright, case studies, challenges, technology and the future of OER. 

The event is funded in part by grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration to a coalition of Massachusetts community colleges. Registration for the Summit is now open: bit.ly/neoerregistration2017.

More Information: bit.ly/neoersummit2017