TRAILS News

TRAILS is pleased to announce that Christina Trunnell will be joining TRAILS as the our new Open Educational Resources Coordinator. Christina is currently the Head of Library and Information Services at Treasure Valley Community College in Ontario, Oregon. She brings considerable knowledge of OER and experience with statewide OER efforts in Oregon. In Montana she will be responsible for rolling out and coordinating the statewide OER Initiative that is being funded by OCHE. Christina officially begins her duties with us on March 20.

Faculty, deans, library directors, library colleagues, and curricula designers from Montana higher education are invited to participate in an Open Textbook Network training workshop hosted by TRAILS on February 1st, 2019 at MSU-Bozeman. The workshop will run from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm in Room 233 of the Strand Union.

Open educational resources are teaching, learning and research resources, such as textbooks, that are in the public domain or have been released with an open license – meaning anyone can freely use, adapt and share the materials.

This workshop is a joint effort by TRAILS (https://trailsmt.org), the Open Textbook Network (OTN) (https://research.cehd.umn.edu/otn), the Montana University System (https://mus.edu), and the MT Board of Regents (https://mus.edu/board). Experts at OTN will serve to form the foundation for creating a community of practice, centered around building OER (Open Educational Resources) learning content, for affordable learning in Montana.

Please go here for more information and to register – https://goo.gl/forms/svMQhNLEeLabAHdo2.

Note – Space is limited so register soon.

TRAILS joined the Open Textbook Network, an alliance of hundreds of colleges, universities, and consortia partners working together to advance the use of open textbooks in higher education, in the fall of 2018. Textbook affordability is a major concern on college campuses throughout the United States and this is an exciting partnership that allows us to provide member libraries with tools and services that will assist them in building sustainable open textbook programs on their campuses. TRAILS membership means that all of our member libraries will have access to OTN resources and trainings.

There will be 2 OTN training workshops offered. The first is on Feb. 1st at MSU-Boz and the 2nd will be next fall at UM-Missoula exact date tbd. Both sessions will be about creating a community of practice, centered around building OER learning content, for affordable learning in Montana. The workshops will be free and attendees may be faculty, deans, library directors, library colleagues, curricula designers, or anyone who wishes to learn about how to implement OER for higher ed in MT.