This document summarizes a presentation about the BC Open Textbook Project. The presentation discusses the high cost of textbooks for students, and how open textbooks can help increase access to education. It provides an overview of the project goals, phases, and technology used to create, publish and distribute open textbooks. The project aims to create 40 open textbooks aligned with top enrollment courses in BC over multiple phases, starting with reviewing existing open textbooks and moving to adapting and creating new textbooks. Faculty are invited to provide input and reviews during the process. The document also discusses the technology used for authoring, publishing, storing and distributing the open textbooks.

1. ETUG Spring 2013
BC Open Textbook Project
Clint Lalonde & Mary Burgess
Curriculum Services & Applied Research
Unless otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

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Agenda
• Why Open Textbooks?
• Project update
• Technology
• Your ideas, thoughts &
questions, input?
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Sparks
• What is a textbook?
• How do you use a textbook?
• What criteria do you use when choosing a textbook?
• Are supplementary materials (test banks, quizzes,
presentations) important when choosing a textbook?
• What are you hearing at your institutions? What questions
are you fielding about the project?
• How can we support you in supporting your faculty?
• What are we missing?
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We have a problem…
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Images from
http://www.openeducation.net/2009/09/17/beyond-textbooks-andy-chlup-discusses-digital-learning-models/
CC-BY and
http://markmcguire.net/2011/01/01/r-i-p-department-of-design-studies/ CC-BY-NC

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Fortunately, there are solutions…
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Images from http://collegeopentextbooks.ning.com/page/adopt-1
CC-BY and http://classroom-aid.com/2011/12/07/why-dont-teachers-publish-their-own-textbooks-k12/
CC-BY-SA

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What is an Open Textbook?
•An instructional resource
•An ebook
•A printed book
•Uses a Creative Commons license to enable others to further
share and modify
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Images from Bccampus.ca and CreativeCommons.org. CC-BY

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The BC Open Textbook Project
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Image from Bccampus.ca

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ETUG Spring 2013
Why are we doing this project?
•To increase access to higher education
by reducing student costs
•To enable faculty more control over
their instructional resources
•To move the open agenda forward in a meaningful, measurable
way
Images from Oxfam.org CC-BY and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Daniel_Mietchen/Talks/World_Open_Educational_Resources_Congress_2012
/How_Open_Access_and_Open_Science_can_mutually_fertilize_with_Open_Educational_Resources CC-BY

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The project:
•40 Texts, aligned with the 40 most highly enrolled 1st
and 2nd
year
subjects in BC
•Not just for online delivery
•Ebook (multiple formats) or print on demand
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Project Phases:
Phase One: Call for reviews
of existing open textbooks
Date: Now – call closes May 24
Phase Two: Call for adaptations
Date: Sept 2013
Phase Three: Call for creation from scratch
Date: Jan 2014
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Images from http://www.advanc-ed.org/issues-in-education/perspectives/worth-investment-strengthening-teacher-evaluation-age-accountabilit
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wakingtiger/3156791341/
http://gutsygirls.net/gygsns2/pages/c-and-v-page

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Where we got “seed” OTB
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openstaxcollege.org
collegeopentextbooks.org/
saylor.org/books
open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/

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Phase 1: Technology
• Host seed books
• Public faculty reviews
• Faculty review community (Adaption/Author)
• Single site
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Phase 1: Technology
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open.bccampus.ca

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Phase 2/3 Remix/Author: Technology
1. Adapting & Authoring – import, creation, modification
2. Publishing – how final output is rendered
3. Repository - where final “books” will be stored
4. Distribution - how content is made available to
students/faculty
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Phase 2/3 Remix/Author: Technology
Authoring & Adapting – import, creation, modification
ETUG Spring 2013
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Phase 2/3 Remix/Author: Technology
Publishing – how final output is rendered
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HTML – Most universal
PDF – Print on Demand, cumbersome in eReader
ePub – Still far from standard. Accessibility

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Phase 2/3 Remix/Author: Technology
Repository - where final “books” will be stored
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Invisible to end users

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Phase 2/3 Remix/Author: Technology
Distribution - how content is made available to students/faculty
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• Faculty websites
• Department websites
• Institutional Libraries
• Print on Demand
• HTML version
(either self-hosted or
possible hosted on
OpenTextBC.ca)

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ETUG Spring 2013
Sparks
• What is a textbook?
• How do you use a textbook?
• What criteria do you use when choosing a textbook?
• Are supplementary materials (test banks, quizzes,
presentations) important when choosing a textbook?
• What are you hearing at your institutions? What questions
are you fielding about the project?
• How can we support you in supporting your faculty?
• What are we missing?
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ETUG Spring 2013
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Unless otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Thank you!
Mary Burgess mburgess@bccampus.ca
Clint Lalonde clalonde@bccampus.ca