College Open Textbooks BLOG
Driving Awareness and Adoption
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. 
Hats Off to the Florida! (Part 1) – Open Textbook Leaders
I think it’s time to acknowledge the many organizations who have put in alot of effort and achieved significant accomplishments in the Open Textbook movement. Starting with this post, I will be putting the spotlight on those organizations on a state by state basis. Just in case I blitz out (and sometimes I do..) and miss some organization that should to be mentioned, comment back to this blog and tell us about it.
Todays Hats Off goes to the FLDC, the University Press of Florida (UPF), Orange Grove, and Orange Grove Texts Plus. OK, now let’s decipher all of this.
FDLC is the Florida Distance Learning Consortium. The consortium consists of Florida educational institutions and promotes and supports Distance Learning.
The University Press of Florida is the official publisher for the Florida State University System. Their goal is to collaborate with all the stakeholders in the chain of higher education to meet their evolving needs.
Orange Grove is an online repository of free educational resources based in Florida. Orange Grove Text Plus is a joint initiative of Orange Grove and the University Press of Florida. These two organizations are partnering to lower textbook costs by providing textbooks that are affordable, available online, and adaptable by both instructor and student.
These organizations are a powerhouse in the State of Florida when it comes to leading the way for Open Textbooks. Great results and positive relationships. Hats off!
I had the opportunity to speak with some individuals who represent these organizations; Cathy Alfano (Orange Grove Proj. Mgr., FDLC), Susie Henderson (Orange Grove Project Director and Associate Executive Director of FDLC), and Meredith Morris-Babb (Director of the University Press of Florida, UFP). All three were very enthusiastic about the interest generated by educators and students in Florida and the success of the programs. They pointed out that all the pieces are in place for continued success and growth (resource repository, delivery method, authoring, motivated end consumer). Orange Grove has six server centers world wide that can be used to deliver content to locations around the globe. Meredith brought up the point that course supplement materials (quizes / homework / tests / etc) are an important part of the resources. They are working with WebAssign to provide the related supplemental materials online 24/7. 
In the area of adopting and resource creation, they are working with universities on programs to make it enticing for instructors to participate in and create Open Textbooks.
In summary, they are all set up to deliver quality resources to students in the format of their choice (%100 online/downloadable to printable copies) not only in the state of Florida, but any other locations where these educational resources are needed.
There is alot of activity in Florida, so more on Florida in another post. In the meantime, go check out their websites!
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