Driving Awareness, Adoptions, and Affordability

All Blog Posts (296)

Dozens of Open Textbooks Newly Posted

Even if you have already visited the OER Consortium list of open textbooks before, consider revisiting because dozens of open textbooks were newly posted for a variety of disciplines today.

See below for just a few of the many newly posted open textbooks.

Anthropology

Life in the… Continue

Added by Judy Baker on November 4, 2009 at 5:53pm — No Comments

Nobel Laureates in Lit are not in my Class

I teach pre-college English online. My students are not English majors and it is doubtful that they will ever be interested in becoming the next Hemingway or even the next Stephen King. They just want to pass the minimum English requirements necessary for their particular certificate or degree program. In their eyes, everything else is busy work.

When I think about Open Textbooks and the ability to remix, reuse, and repurpose - this is where I get a little excited. Creative Commons… Continue

Added by Lisa Chamberlin on November 4, 2009 at 3:26pm — 1 Comment

CCCOER Nominated for 2010 Bellwether Award sponsored by the Community College Futures Assembly

The Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER) has been nominated for the 2010 Bellwether Award in the Instructional Programs & Services category. The awards are for proven programs to narrow the achievement gap.

In my conversation with Phillip Morris, Community College Futures Assembly Program Director and Alumni Fellow, Educational Administration and Policy, College of Education, University of Florida, I learned that sustainability and transferability… Continue

Added by Jacky Hood on November 3, 2009 at 9:07am — No Comments

Advantages of e-textbooks

What are the advantages of adopting an electronic textbook?

Electronic textbooks allow for -

* electronic bookmarking and highlighting
* keyword searches
* electronic mail
* links to Web resources related to the topic
* ways for teachers to customize the information for their students
* hyperlinked definitions and word pronunciation
* language translation

What are some other advantages?

Added by Judy Baker on November 3, 2009 at 7:56am — 1 Comment

Recent articles/opinions on open and digital textbooks

All of these articles/opinions appeared in October.

School chooses Kindle; are libraries for the history 'books'?

..partnering with Oxford University to offer any materials it develops as a free, open-source guide.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-10-26-kindle-school-library_N.htm

Bookstores and Beyond - Some interesting statistics on textbook costs and some… Continue

Added by Howard Emmons on October 31, 2009 at 4:11pm — No Comments

DoE Arne Duncan Proposes Unbundling Higher Education

More details about the Obama's vision for open online courses for community colleges are slowly emerging. In his Politico op-ed piece, titled "Moving college into the 21st century," Arne Duncan, Secretary of the Department of Education speaks to the unbundling of higher education to improve access:

"Beyond these investments in our future, one part of the AGI (Amrican Graduation Initiative) has the… Continue

Added by Judy Baker on October 23, 2009 at 11:37am — No Comments

Online Presentation about Creative Commons, Open Education, "Journalism 2.0" Project - TONIGHT!

Steve Hargadon, Founder of Classroom 2.0, announces that Esther Wojcicki will give an online presentation tonight about Creative Commons, Open Education, and a new "Journalism 2.0" project she's helping to launch.

"Esther Wojcicki has been a Journalism/English teacher at Palo Alto High School in Palo Alto, California for the past 25 years where she built the journalism program from a small group of 20 students in 1985 to the largest high school journalism program in the nation… Continue

Added by Judy Baker on October 21, 2009 at 12:23pm — No Comments

Faculty Attitudes Toward Open Textbooks

A recent study by the Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE) on faculty attitudes toward affordable and open textbooks reveals no surprises, however this information provides greater insight than existing anecdotal evidence.

The results indicate that faculty need a greater diversity of open textbook choices than what currently exists in order to achieve widespread… Continue

Added by Judy Baker on October 20, 2009 at 8:14pm — No Comments

OER in the news

You may be interested in today's Huffington Post article by Curriki's Barbara Kurshan about various sustainability models for OER. See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-barbara-kurshan/free-education----sustain_b_313397.html

Added by Judy Baker on October 13, 2009 at 4:48pm — No Comments

Ignou- Doctor M community college in Kerala

A community college by name ignou doctor m community college is estblished by Dr Majeed an educationalist based in Kollam Keral. He is the Founder Chairman of A.M College of pharmacy in kerala.The community college has designed a number of innovatve programme required for the community

Added by DR P.V. MAJEED on October 11, 2009 at 7:55am — No Comments

Two Open Textbooks Nominated for the Special Academic Recognition

Jacky Hood, Director, Open Textbook Collaborative at Foothill College, nominated two open textbooks for special academic recognition.

"Collaborative Statistics", by Barbara Illowsky and Susan Dean, was nominated for the 2010 William Holmes McGuffey Longevity Award. The McGuffey Award was created in 1993 to recognize textbooks and… Continue

Added by Bill Buxton on October 9, 2009 at 4:54pm — 1 Comment

Open Textbooks and Articulation?

Two articles in the September 2009 issue of the Senate Rostrum newsletter address the topic of open educational resources, open textbooks, and articulation.

Barbara Illowsky authored the first article, titled: "And the Textbook Is ... Free? Introduction to Open Educational Resources," in which she explains how faculty can impact educational costs for students by adopting open… Continue

Added by Judy Baker on October 8, 2009 at 3:55pm — No Comments

Essay on "Brief Overview of Public Policy on OER"

Today, an essay was posted to the Publius Project on "A Brief Overview of Public Policy on OER from California Community Colleges to the Obama Administration" authored by Carolina Rossini and Erhardt Graeff of the Berkman Center at Harvard University.

Excerpt from the essay: "OER encourages and enables the open production, sharing of, and access to educational content and resources. This alone is a valuable societal good,… Continue

Added by Judy Baker on October 1, 2009 at 10:00am — No Comments

The Orange Grove's Text Plus (& Smarthistory.org)

The Orange Grove, Florida's K20 digital repository and the University Press of Florida have teamed up to created Text Plus an open textbook repository. I thought this was important work even before they vetted and accepted Smarthistory.org—now I think they're brilliant.

Added by Dr. Steven Zucker on September 29, 2009 at 5:32pm — No Comments

Open Textbook Legislation Proposed by Sen. Durbin

Info about Senator Durbin's Legislation to Make College Textbooks More Affordable posted on Cable Green's blog

Added by Judy Baker on September 28, 2009 at 10:07pm — No Comments

Helpful Summary of State Policies about eTextbooks and Open Textbooks

ECS.org Clearinghouse provides this helpful summary if state policies and intiatives, titled: 'State Initiatives Regarding Electronic or Open Source Textbooks' By Noe M. Cisneros, September 2009.

Added by Judy Baker on September 28, 2009 at 9:30pm — No Comments

Campus Bookstore Links to Free Textbooks and Courses

A campus bookstore website links students to free textbooks used in Queen’s University courses. Find out details from Jeff Young’s article “College Bookstores Hope to Turn Their Web Sites Into E-Book Portals” in The Wired Campus.

Added by Judy Baker on September 26, 2009 at 10:17pm — 1 Comment

Orange Grove Texts Plus in the News

Inside Higher Ed describes Orange Grove Texts Plus in a recent article: Free, But at What Cost? Scroll to bottom to see comments about the article posted by CCOT Collaborative Program Director, Jacky Hood.

As reported by The Orange Grove, the 2009 Florida Legislature requested (HB 7121 or SB 844) that an Open… Continue

Added by Judy Baker on September 26, 2009 at 3:40pm — No Comments

Need information on working with bookstores and OER

Our institution has begun initial exploration into the provision of open textbooks and other OER for some of our courses. During this initial exploration, the bookstore (Follett), has raised a question as to what the institution's overall strategy is with regards to Open Textbooks. I'd like to know from others what types of strategies they have used within their own institution with regards to adoption and deployment of open textbooks as well as success stories (or failure stories) of working… Continue

Added by Kara Monroe on September 23, 2009 at 11:34am — 4 Comments