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Find, Author, and Share Open Textbooks
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Week 5: Author-Adopter Communities and Sustainability (Feb 23-Mar 3)
Go back to: General discussion
Self questions and discussion questions for this module:
- What are the concerns of instructors in my organization about using open resources?
- Would author/adopter communities address some of these concerns?
- Would online or face-to-face collaboration be more effective for author/adopter communities?
- What online collaboration tools would be the most useful for these communities?
Instructor Resources such as testbank that can be uploaded to Learning Management System at school is one of the main concern of instructors in my organization. Instructors in face-to-face classes are also concerned with availability of Course Management System, such as Homework Manager or WileyPlus, that can come with the adopted textbook at no additional cost to the organization, or to the student. Ability to access the learning outcome for accredition, and for Quality (instructional) Enhancement Plan, is also one of the major concern of several faculty members and administrators at my organization.
Hi Devendra,
WebAssign is one company that provides homework management software and is working with open source textbook and resource repositories to make it affordable. From a recent press release: http://bit.ly/hsHeiL
RALEIGH, N.C., Sept. 21, 2010 - WebAssign, the leading provider of powerful online homework for college professors and students, announced this week it has formed a partnership with two open source content repositories: Connexions, a Rice University–based global repository of educational content, and Orange Grove Texts Plus (OGT+), a joint initiative of the University Press of Florida and The Orange Grove.
The partnership aims to make college textbooks more affordable and allows for the adoption of open textbooks without having to forgo the online homework support that professors typically need to manage their course. This is the latest example of the Open Education Resource (OER) movement that is seen as an accessible and affordable solution to mitigate the high costs of textbooks, which are rising 6 percent on average every year.
What are the concerns of instructors in my organization about using open resources?
One that I have run up against at my school & a few others is the bookstore. Many colleges have deals with the bookstore (company). For example, at my college, a portion of textbook sales are "donated" to the scholarship fund - so using open texts "hurts" students.
Unfortunately, it is also just easier to assign a book and have students buy it than it is to research & evaluate texts and then arrange for making them available.
We also battle the idea that open textbooks are inferior to trad texts - and the only way to dispel that is to actually have faculty evaluate & use some.
I was wondering with author / adopter as so linked perhaps a real tangible for this course might be a sort of online dating site for people who want to make books on topics? I would assume loads of people could cluster round it then, decide on tasks and work?
I think I might have a whirl at this too :)
I like ideas.
At this time, too few instructors are aware of the open sources available to them. Our college is at least a decade behind in terms of technology. Our campus is not wireless and we have no smart classrooms.
Pat
Perhaps a wiki site might be best for book creation of that type.
Have you looked at http://wikibooks.org ?