April – June

General WisTech Open updates, as well as updates from each of their respective editors, for the second quarter can be found below. Note that the Open RN brand, textbooks, and related resources will all be maintained and sustained through WisTech Open. If you’d like to get involved or propose a new project, visit www.cvtc.edu/WisTech.

General Updates

• 📈 Open RN e-books surpassed one million page views, reaching over 320,000 international users. Several colleges nationwide have adopted one or more Open RN textbooks.
• 📘 Nursing Fundamentals e-book was published in July on Pressbooks. Additionally, the Nursing Fundamentals, Nursing Skills, and Nursing Pharmacology textbooks have been uploaded to LibreTexts for easy remixing. XanEdu plans to release an optional, affordable, soft-cover print version this fall.
• 📝 Nursing Management and Professional Concepts e-book is nearing completion in Pressbooks. It is scheduled for piloting and national peer review in January 2022. Registered users on the Open RN site will receive more information this fall.
• 🧠 Nursing Mental Health and Community Concepts textbook is currently in development and is planned for release by Fall 2022.
• 📊 2020–2021 academic year data shows that WTCS course sections using Open RN textbooks had a 5% higher student success rate (grade “C” or better) than non-OER sections. Over $1 million in student savings resulted from multidisciplinary OER adoption. Data collection continues into 2021–2022.
• 🖥️ Virtual Reality Centers at CVTC and NWTC were featured during National Simulation Week. Simulations developed with Acadicus VR software are paired with Open RN teaching plans. Also, 18 online asynchronous OER virtual simulations have been shared on the LibreStudio repository and received strong feedback from faculty and students.