University of Wyoming Libraries will soon be launching a new, open peer-reviewed journal - the Journal of Open Educational Resources in Higher Education (JOERHE). The journal is currently accepting scholarly articles that critically analyze the role of open educational resources (OER) in higher education for its debut issue. The journal is expected to launch this fall.
Development and implementation of OER in higher education are expanding rapidly as colleges and universities seek to ease the financial burden experienced by students. According to Achieving the Dream’s 2020 study on the academic and economic impacts of one specific OER initiative, student savings averaged $65 or more per student per OER course.
Many campuses, including UW, are encouraging alternatives to commercial textbooks through the adoption, adaptation, and creation of OER. Alternative textbook grants from UW Libraries allow faculty to implement OER in their classes. Proposals for the next round of grants for fall semester implementation are due March 31.
JOERHE, a non-commercial open access journal that will be published once a year by UW Libraries, offers librarians, instructors, and other OER experts a platform for their scholarship on OER, open pedagogy, open access, and similar topics focused specifically within the context of higher education.
In addition to peer-reviewed research, JOERHE features an editorially reviewed columns section where invited contributors present case studies, experiential essays, notes from the field, and similar shorter-form entries. JOERHE also solicits and publishes reviews on select OER by qualified experts.
The journal’s editors-in-chief are Samantha Peter, instructional design librarian at UW Libraries; Hilary Baribeau, scholarly communications librarian at Colby College; and Kristina Clement, student outreach and sponsored programs librarian and librarian assistant professor at Kennesaw State University.
JOERHE welcomes quantitative and qualitative research articles and discussion pieces concerning OER in higher education. Authors are encouraged to discuss the practical applications of their knowledge and findings, propose best practices, discuss theoretical models and frameworks, and describe their programmatic and practical experiences.
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