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Week 1: What are your comments or concerns regarding the use of open educational resources and textbooks?
Go back to: General discussion
Please respond to at least one other participant's comment or concerns.
I think open means (1) free of cost, (2) a complete unit, and (3) a 100% unrestrictive unit
I think my main concern is the use of correct licenses. For example, Creative Commons has at least 6 types of lincenses, and how would I know if I can do what I would like to do (use, re-use and distribute) with certain licenses.
Carina
Carina:
Yes, there are many, but not too many and keeping them straight is not all that difficult after you get familiar with them. Here is a link to the Creative Commons page where all are listed and explained: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
This page also explains the three-layer approach to creative commons licenses, and provides license Deed and legal code for each of their licenses.
Kelley
Thanks, Kelley!
Thanks Kelley - This is great!
I hope I get more familiar with the licenses as I start using, re-using and mixing them more often :-)
Carina
I think understanding creative commons is a whole thing onto itself.....
Yes, Mike, I have to admit that it is somewhat confusing at first glance because Creative Commons has multiple options. Some open educational resource advocates only recognize one Creative Commons license which is the minimum restriction other wise referred to as CC-BY or Attribution-only. This license allows re-use of work with the only proviso being that the originator is given credit (attribution) in the new work. This in fact is the license that all modules at Connexions are published under.
Una:
Connexions and others are very fond of CC-By because it makes the material available for commercial use. This seems counter-intuitive to the open-access movement, but in many of the developing areas of the world educational opportunities are being made available through commercial entities who might pull out if they had to pay use fees for the materials. I am hoping our small contingent of participants from Africa will chime in on this discussion and provide more clarification, if they can.
Kelley
Thank you, Kelley, for raising that point. It is easy for us in countries where education is subsidized by the government to be less aware of the needs in countries where education particularly higher education may only be available through private, commercial entities.
Sadly CC-BY does mean it can be used by commercial firms as well - it lacks the GPL element that it has to stay free. Remember you only need to worry about the license something has if you want to use, you can often publish with a different (public domain) license.
As for the question itself, it is clear that we have to do our homework in terms of compliance...as Carina noted. The last thing we need is to get a "seize and desist" from someone.
:-)
Mike:
You raise a very valid concern. Even if content is identified on a website that specializes in open-access content, some level of vetting is always necessary - even with a site like Connexions.
Kelley
As for the question itself, it is clear that we have to do our homework in terms of compliance...as Carina noted. The last thing we need is to get a "seize and desist" from someone.
:-)
As a newbie to this area I have been checking out the directory of open access journal and repositories. I am confused why they are called open when you have to pay to download some/most of the articles!!! Secondly, I found the book OPEN TEXTBOOK by sharyn Fitzpatrick and found that you had to pay to get copies of this book and there was also a list of OER friendly publishers. Guess I was mistaken about what OPEN really means. Buying a book on OER or Open Textbook was not what I expected. I have been trying to find an example of an open text book on line so that I can see what it actually looks like and how references are made etc. Any suggestions of a good example- perhaps in the education area.
Thanks- Green but keen about OER. JAne
Jane:
Here is a link to Advanced Algebra II, located on Connexions: http://cnx.org/content/m19435/latest/
This is an open-access textbook. The author explains how his textbook (actually comprised of three textbooks) works.
Check it out.
Kelley
Jane:
An article on open textbooks may not itself be an open-access document. Many open-access documents and learning object can include a modest price for printing and shipping. Most can be downloaded free in PDF form (you still pay for printing is you print at home on your handy desktop HP), or access (read) for free in their html version.
There are college bookstores (our is one) who offer both printing and binding services for open-textbooks for a nominal fee. *I know of one web-based company that will print and bind most open-textbooks for $8 a copy. Rather cheap compared to a copyrighted $140 book.
Kelley
Can you point me to any online info about how your bookstore deals with open textbooks? That's big concern with colleges I have talked to.
df
Hello - Lulu.com is one of these online printing where you upload your PDF. They give you an option to customize your book or course handout cover, and print black or color. They even give you an option to make your book private, sell your book on their website or make it free of charge where the person who wants it will only pay printing and shipping fees. They printed my dissertation, I was happy with their service. I think I paid about $11 for printing and shipping two copies, black and white,160 pages each copie. http://www.lulu.com
...Claver
Hi Jane,
I found the book by Sharyn Fitzpatrick available at the ICDE website - http://www.icde.org/en/resources/open_educational_resources/reports_on_o...
Carina
Hi Jane,
To paraphrase Einstein, the more one knows, the more one does not know...don't feel bad...and hope you're as excited as I am!!!
"See" you later.
:-)
Mike
Hi Jane,
that is very surprising - open should absolutely mean free of cost (ideally open license too, but that is not always the case). Could you give me some examples of articles listed under open access that you had to pay for?
Here's a great example of open textbooks: http://www.fhsst.org/
Jane and Stian, I agree--the more I read the comments, the less I think I know. I hope our orientation this evening (I'm on the east coast) clarifies some of my questions.
I am currently (1/27/11, 11:30 a.m. PST) participating in a webinar on open textbooks: "Building a Sustainable New Text Model in the Era of the $200 Textbook". Speaker is Eric Frank, co-founder of Flat World Knowledge. The recording will be available later today at this site: http://www.cccconfer.org/MyConfer/OpenArchives.aspx?ShowType=Webinars
Search list by title and date.
Kelley
Hi Kelley
Thanks for recommending this webinar. I just watched the archive version and found it very interesting and informative. He frames his presentation on how the publishing industry has changed over the past 20 years and gives examples of how faculty and students can use Open Education textbooks. It was a real eye opener for me as I usually work with the traditional publishers and I must say I was impressed and
inspired. thanks and I would suggest others to have a look- it is a whole new world of publishing. Now I recognize that open text does not necessarily mean free of cost ---- but certainly lower costs and able to be revised! JAne
Thanks everyone for the great open definitions and resources shared. Open is an evolving term in licensing and Creative Commons is the emerging global standard but has been around for less than a decade. We will talk briefly about this in the orientation meeting but week 3 will be devoted to this topic.
Open to all for all to use (with some limits). The Open Educational Resource concept will gain more steam due to the digital books surge that is starting to dominate (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/amazons-kindle-e-books-outselling-...) . . . but again a "divide" will emerge because of the cost associated with being able to read one digital book from Amazon and others. So my comment is this . . . OERs have the potential to "supplement" or replace fee-based digital books for free or a smaller fee, thus sealing or reducing a potential "digital divided." At that point the quest(ion) will shift to the QUALITY of content found in OERs. Are there reviews of OERs available? And who or what stamp of approval would be accepted among such a diverse community OER users? This is my comment/concern :-]
Hi Erich,
The quality of open resources is a very valid concern of potential faculty adopters and one that all the OER repositories and College Open Textbooks try to address in some form. College Open Textbooks has had over 100 peer reviews completed of the open textbooks catlogued on our site. Connexions uses a lense concept where organizations: colleges, consortiums, departments, associations can recommend collections of OER, Merlot has a very rigorous peer review process for open educational resources. Wikibooks uses a featured book label to identify outstanding open textbooks, etc. We really need faculty to be willing to review resources to make this sustainable as well.
Check out the College Open Textbooks peer reviews here:
http://collegeopentextbooks.org/open-textbook-content/the-reviews.html
Quality of OER - A common question many people ask here at the college is about the quality of open resources. They tend to think that anybody can post anything they want, and quality control like peer review mechanism is not there. They raise a valid concern. Usually my answer comes in form of a question “How do you usually choose a text book or an article to use in your course?” My advice is that you still have to put in time to skim through, and carefully read it to make sure that you found something good for your course.
...Claver
Hoping I am in the right ballpark, my understanding of open texts is very much in line with Devendra's definition, but is it that easy? It seems in certain situations that nothing is really free or open and there could still be a piper to pay if you make a wrong step.