College Open Textbooks BLOG
Driving Awareness and Adoption
Connexions Conference 2011 (Part 3)
Part 3
Connexions has expanded its partnerships to several organizations. I will highlight some of them. Representatives from the following organizations demonstrated, presented and/or discussed their organizations: VOER (The Vietnam Foundation for OER: http://voer.edu.vn ), Upfront Systems in South Africa (there was an excellent demo of http://mobile.cnx.org and a demo showing MathMl and text on cell phones using just a mobile browser, i.e., not needing an iPhone or an Android), WebAssign (http://webassign.net – an excellent homework and grading system for the sciences and mathematics which I personally admire and use with Collaborative Statistics), Shutterfly in South Africa (all content in the K-12 curriculum is available via mobile cell phones, again, not needing a smart phone), Jesuit Virtual Learning Academy (resource for network for the Jesuit 53 secondary schools in US and more than 400 secondary schools worldwide which encourages the development, use, and sharing of educational resources ), UniqU (a spin-off from Connexions that helps folks use Connexions http://theuniqu.com ), Words & Numbers (a publisher that has developed open textbooks for Connextions and other organizations), AKADEMOS (provides an information and commerce platform that serves a single site for gathering all learning materials used in educational environments http://akademos.com). Bridgeport Education (the parent company of Ashford University and University of the Rockies), Full Marks (a South African nonprofit assessment bank that is completely open source; people can add your own questions, score sheets, etc.), and NOTA (OER for K-12).
Dr. Joel Thierstein, Executive Director – Connexions
I will finish up this blog with a few comments from Joel Thierstein. Joel proudly proclaimed that OER is transitioning from a “movement” to “mainstream” as we transition into K-12 market. He announced that in the last two months, Connexions received a grant from a consortium of grantors. It is going to produce publisher quality content initially targeted at community colleges. Phase I is 18 months long and will result in the production of 5 textbooks (Anatomy &Physiology, Sociology, Biology, Biology for non-majors, and Physics). Phase II will also be 18 months long and will produce 15 additional books). The major expense is expected to be clearing the copyright of images. Once that happens, the images will be available freely to all. The goal of funders to increase quality of education. The money folks used to spend on textbooks will now be available to spend on new and innovative ways to do content. “If we succeed in this, it will change education forever,” according to Joel.
Connexions Conference 2011 (Part 2)
Part 2
The first panel discussed Connexions in Higher Education. Connexions co-founder, Dr. Sidney Burrus, gave a brief history of Connexions, describing how it started in the Electrical Engineering Department of Rice University 1999 with a text written by Dr. Richard Baraniuk. Later, Collaborative Statistics, of which I am a co-author, became a Proof of Concept book. Dr. Andrew Barron explained his current project of including lots of cross references in modules for searching for techniques in the Chemistry discipline. Tom Caswell from the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges described its open course library with a project to design and share 81 (summer 2010 – fall 2012) high enrollment gatekeeper courses (face-to-face, hybrid and online). The goals of that project are to improve course completion rates, lower textbook costs for students (< $30 per text), provide new resources for faculty to use in their courses and for the WA college system to fully engage the global OER discussion. The 81 courses will be included in Connexions. Jim Berry from NCPEA discussed his project, peer reviewed journals for K-12 principals. This is a free market of education global, not locally. He discussed the peer review so that manuscripts published are high quality. An organization goal is “educational administrative professional knowledge that is captured by the profession and
made accessible via the internet .” The journals are housed on Connexions. More information is available at: http://www.ncpeapublications.org/
Perhaps most important to Connexions end users will be this technical update. EPUB (eReaders) has Connexions content on it. This eReader is used for most mobile devices (except for Kindles). Connexions content is on iTunesU (18 collections), is available with an Android App, has Mobile downloads, and has new math support that is better looking for users. I am excited that Connexions pages now load faster due to a technical change to have better load balancing.
Hats Off to Minnesota! (Part 1)
With their students facing the same pressures from the economy and rising textbook prices as everywhere else in the country, the staff and faculty at the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) have stretched to find solutions. Comprising 25 community and technical colleges and seven state universities, MnSCU is administered by the Office of the Chancellor in St. Paul.
It has been to this office and to Todd Digby, System Director of Libraries, that the leadership role has fallen.
Digby explains that there was a legislative push in the state to reduce textbook costs for students, and because he was involved in both online education and library resources, he was recruited to look into possible alternatives, including the development and adoption of open textbooks and educational materials.
While meeting a favorable response to the concept among many faculty members, Digby found that he needed to put practical tools in the hands of instructors if they were to actually go forward, develop, and use open resources. Aware, too, that individuals and institutions around the country were engaged in efforts to create materials and make them available, he has put his energy into providing what he sees as the critical “wraparound services” that can contribute to success. From the outset two needs were identified: first, creating an online repository for Minnesota schools, and second, providing adequate development tools to faculty so they could create teaching materials in useable formats.
The first of these, building and maintaining a repository, is now being implemented through the Minnesota Learning Commons (MNLC), a partnership of Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, the University of Minnesota, and the Minnesota Department of Education along with public K-12 schools. Not just a home for online textbooks, MNLC hosts a wide range of learning resources, including introductory learning materials and course parts. The MNLC site also provides a gateway link to the National Repository of Online Courses (NROC), which is hosted by the Monterey Institute for Technology and Education.
To be continued.
Webinar (11/16, 11:30am PST) – How to Drive College Costs Down & Quality Up in TX and CA: Emerging Textbook Solutions
CCCOER Board member, Dr. Cable Green – Director of eLearning & Open Education, Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges – asked us to forward this webinar invitation.
Title: How to Drive College Costs Down and Quality Up in TX and CA: Emerging Textbook Solutions
Date: Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Time: 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM PST/1:30 PM CST/2:30 PM EST
Register: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/399352082
Long recognized for their far-reaching influence on education and textbook publishing, California and Texas are poised to be national leaders in efforts to reduce barriers to higher education and combat escalating textbook prices.
Join CA Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez; Dr. Charles Coo
k, Vice Chancellor, Houston Community College; Eric Frank, President, Flat World Knowledge; and Dennis Passovoy of The University of Texas at Austin for this webcast on new textbook affordability initiatives and the rise of open textbooks.
Webcast will discuss:
- Why textbooks costs have sky-rocketed.
- How textbook costs impact students, faculty and institutions.
- Current efforts in CA and TX to address textbook affordability and educate faculty on emerging solutions.
- What defines open educational resources and open textbooks, and how they can reduce student costs by 80 percent, while increasing quality and accessibility, and faculty innovation.
New York Times Features Curriki
NYT Features Curriki. Raises Awareness of Open Text Possibilities.
When the New York Times spotlights an issue, its lends an air of importance to a topic that no other media source can match. Certainly the recent NYT article about open texts featuring former Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy and Curriki, a project he spearheaded, has helped bring public attention to the issue of high textbook costs to a new level. Even m
ore important, it has helped establish the legitimacy of open texts and their potential to reduce the cost of education.
In contrast to the Community College Open Textbook Collaborative, which as its name implies focuses on providing open text alternatives for community college classes, Curriki is dedicated to making “free, high-quality curricula and education resources” available to teachers, students and parents. Built on the XWiki open development platform, the Curriki website is a virtual clearinghouse of curricula segments with an emphasis on core K-12 subjects, including mathematics, science, technology, reading and language arts, and languages. The organization emphasizes that it wants to address “a complete curricula solution, not just a textbook or lesson plans.” At present the site hosts more than 40,000 modules that are free and available for public use. It also facilitates collabora
tive projects and allows registered users to upload, edit or comment on hosted resources.
Another organization highlighted in the Times article, CK-12 Foundation, is working in a parallel manner to create flexible online textbooks that will meet state textbook standards and thus compete with or replace the extremely expensive works that currently hold a monopoly in K-12 education. The Foundation has already been successful in creating nine core science and math textbooks for high school.
MERLOT Panel: Latest Trends in Open Textbook Research
At Merlot’s recent conference, Mitchell Levy – marketing chair, COT – led a panel of industry who’s who’s in Open Textbooks and the OER initiatives. Talking to a packed room, Dr. Judy Baker offered a view on what the true cost of open textbook adoption is as well as the impact they have on enhancing teacher and learning. Clare Mortensen, ISKME shared with the challenges and barriers to wide-spread open textbook adoption that they found through their reserach. She also offered suggestions for how to address them. Joel Thierstein, Connexions offered insights into accessibility and the role it plays in open textbooks and why they need to be addressed by all involved – author, faculty, university and more.
A copy of their presentations is available via download.
De Anza's Barbara Illowsky to present at 2010 TAA Conference
Illowsky_TAA_presentation_0610
How Open Licensing Improved Our Textbook and Our Careers
Saturday, June 26, 2 – 3 pm, Chippewa
Presenter: Barbara Illowsky, Professor, Mathematics & Statistics, De Anza Community College, Co-Author of Collaborative Statistics
Barbara Illowsky will present the benefits she and her co-author have received by open licensing their textbook. These include monetary compensation for the copyright, much higher adoption and usage rates, more and better feedback from instructors and students, media and peer recognition, and more. TAA members who attend this presentation will learn about the various open licenses, where and how open-licensed textbooks are hosted, and how to maximize the benefits of open licensing. They will also learn how open licensed textbooks are a win for students, instructors, schools, parents, taxpayers, and many other groups.
Collaborative Statistics by Susan Dean and Barbara Illowsky has been in continuous publication for more than 15 years. It was nominated recently for the TAA McGuffey Longevity Award. In 2008 the copyright was purchased by a foundation and changed from All Rights Reserved to an open Creative Commons license. The textbook is housed at the Rice University Connexions repository. More than 50 instructors have adopted the textbook. Hundreds of students use it each term online, offline, or in bound format. Five derivatives of the textbook have been published on Connexions.
The Catalyst Campaign: Donate Now to Help Fund Creative Commons’ Catalyst Grants
Creative Commons has launched of the Catalyst Campaign – from now through June 30.
They are raising money to fund their recently-launched Catalyst Grants program.
Catalyst Grants will make it possible for individuals and organizations to harness the power of Creative Commons. A grant might enable a group in a developing country to research how Open Educational Resources can positively impact its community. Another could support a study of entrepreneurs using Creative Commons licenses to create a new class of socially responsible businesses. Anyone may apply for a Catalyst Grant, which ranges from $1,000-$10,000.
But Creative Commons can’t do it without your help. Their goal is to raise $100,000 from CC supporters like you to fund the grants that will make all this possible. Donate today to help spread our mission of openness and innovation across all cultural and national boundaries.
Thanks to the Milan Chamber of Commerce which has generously donated EUR 10,000 to jumpstart the effort!
Advocate: Take a moment to spread the word about the Catalyst Campaign and Grants program on your blog and social networks with our banners and buttons.
Donate: If you give $75 or more, you can become the proud owner of one of these bright and cheerful, limited edition “I Love to Share” t-shirts. Every bit helps so give what you can today to ignite openness and innovation around the world!
Hats Off to the Florida! (Part 2) – Open Textbook Leaders
There’s alot going on in Florida when it comes to Open Textbooks. My first Florida Hats Off post covered some and I offer a few more here.
The folks in Florida have driven the creation of what is called the “Online Content Repository (OnCoRe) Blueprint Project“. This project is being funded by FIPSE (Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education through the Florida Distance Learning Consortium (FDLC).
The OnCoRe Blueprint was created to provide a template or manual to help others create statewide digital repositories. The important fundamental component of the Blueprint is that it uses a standards-based approach that ensures interoperability of content among repositories. You can go to the OnCore Blueprint site and download the pdf file which not only provides details of the Bluprint, but goes into the history of how it came about.
There have been things going on at the government level also; Florida Senate Bill 844 and House Bill 7121. A good jumping off point to learn more about these bills and the activities spawned by them, is to visit the Orange Grove website. One result of these bills was to create the Open Access Textbook Task Force (OATTF). This task force utilizes the skills of a good cross section of Florida based educators and have on their agenda a number of agressive goals to drive the adoption of open textbooks.
Individual participation in these efforts throughout Florida is strong. There is statewide membership in CCCOER (Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources), which was established in July 2007 by the Foothill-De Anza Community College District (FHDA) in California. There has also been strong Florida support for the College Open Textbook Project through workshops and becoming advocate/trainers.
Hats off to Florida for alot of work well done. A double Hats Off to Susie Henderson (FDLC) for being a driver of many of the above mentioned activities. 
Textbook Media and Accessibility Headline CCCOER Quarterly Meeting- June 7th – Foothill College
Join us for the next CCCOER Quarterly Meeting – June 7th – Foothill College
The next quarterly Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER) meeting will be held at Foothill College’s Campus Center (Toyon Room) in Los Altos Hills from 10 am to 1 pm on June 7, 2010. Attendees can join in person or attend online.
AGENDA:
• Keynote presentation with Q&A: Mark Miller, business development at Textbook Media, with a major open textbook announcement.
• CCCOER leadership and changes in the coming months.
• Geoff Cain of College of the Redwoods and representatives of other member colleges will provide presentations on their best practices.
• Panel discussion on textbook accessibility led by College Open Textbooks Associate Director Una Daly featuring - Jared Smith from Web Accessibility in Mind; Gaier Dietrich, acting director of the High Tech Unit of the California Community College; Julie Carpenter, Collections Director at Bookshare; and Alice Kreuger, president of Virtual Ability – who will be discussing the motivations and processes for making OER accessible to diverse learners.
We would also like to invite three other member colleges with new OER websites or other recent initiatives to give short presentations. If interested in sharing your best practices and being one of the three presentations or have any questions, please contact Monica Sain at sainmonica@foothill.edu.
Register today! http://bit.ly/CCCOER_060710
ABOUT CCCOER:
The Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER) is a joint effort by the OER Center for California, Foothill-De Anza Community College District, the League for Innovation in the Community College and many other community colleges and university partners to develop and use open educational resources (OER) and especially open textbooks in community college courses.
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