This is our most current presentation on open textbooks.

1. www.studentpirgs.org/open-textbooks
Geoff Cain
College of the Redwoods

2. Godin, Seth. (2010) “The Coming Melt-Down in Higher Education (as seen by a marketer)
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

3. Prices rising
2x
the rate of
inflation

4. Students average
$750 - $900
per year on
textbooks

5. Part 1:
Flawed market structure gives publishers too much
power
Publisher
Student Professor

6. Part 2:
Self-destructive business model drives unstable model
Publisher
Each textbook is bought
and sold several times,
but the publisher only
profits on the first sale Bookstore
used books
Students

7. High
Price
s only
$238.95

8. New
Editions new 6th
used 5th edition
$81.78
$213.95

9. Biology, 8e
with CengageNOW, Personal Tutor
with SMARTHINKING, InfoTrac 2-
Semester Printed Access Card
Costly $213.95
Bundles

10. Who Pays for Textbooks?
• Students
• Parents
• EOPS
• Board of Gov.
• Financial Aide

11. The solution must:
1. Utilize open, non-commercial licenses
• Texts must be easily editable
• Come from the academic community
• Include peer-review and editing
• Provide free options for students
• Create a useable, accessible repository
• Utilize an efficient distribution and print-on-demand system

12. Redefine the model and the “text.”

13. What
makes a
textbook
open?

14. An “Open Text” is free of copyright
constraints.
• Public Domain
• Creative Commmons
o Attribution (by)
o Share Alike (sa)
o Non-Commercial (nc)
o No Derivative Works (nd)

15. Open licenses legally grant the right to:
• Make copies and change formats
• Distribute copies
• Create customized versions

16. A good way to think about open licenses:
© Some Rights Reserved (vs. All Rights
Reserved)

17. Content is like traditional textbooks:
• Table of contents, chapters, index
• Written by expert author
• Edited and peer-reviewed

18. Formats go beyond traditional textbooks:
• Accessible free online by the public
• Downloadable,
typically as a PDF
• Available in print

20. Collaborative
Statistics
By
Barbara Illowsky and Susan Dean
cnx.org/content/col10522

21. Download PDF
or print
Read online
version
Purchase
printed copy

22. Purchasing a hard copy through
print on demand publisher QOOP

23. Click here to
print out
Navigate table
of contents
Key term links
to definition

24. Benefits for students:
• Students choose their preferred format (print,
PDF, online, etc.)
• Online access is free
• Other formats are optional and fairly priced

25. Benefits for instructors:
• All students have immediate access to the text
• New editions are optional
• Ability to customize
• Corrections are immediate

26. Benefits for Colleges
• Greater access to education for more students
• Save money
• Textbooks customized to
a specific population

27. The Downside…
• Can require organized, coordinated effort
• Books need reviewers
• Possible hidden infrastructure costs (hosting,
printing, distribution, etc.)

29. Individual authors
• Personal motivations
• Sabbatical time/grant funding
• Count open textbooks toward tenure?

30. Institutional projects
• A consortium of 80+ community colleges is
pooling resources to write and review texts
• Rice University founded CNX.org, a platform that
hosts numerous open textbooks
• Hewlett & Maxfield Foundations funded the
creation of a new open textbook

31. Government funding
• A new bill introduced by Sen. Durbin (D-IL) would
create a federal grant program to create open
textbooks through the NSF
• The WA community college system received
state funding to create open curriculum & texts
for the 80 highest enrollment courses.

32. What About "Open" Commercial Publishers
like Flat World Knowledge?
This is a failed model because:
• It is how we got into trouble in the first place
• It sets up a commercial intermediary between the students
and content
• Tends to create proprietary interfaces (reader software)
that costs money
• Costs inevitably go up

33. The Long Tail
The same area

34. Benefits of this publishing model:
• Used books aren’t a big threat, since new books
are affordable
• Digital and print-on-demand distribution is far
more efficient
• No need for excessive restrictions to prevent
piracy - the book is already available for free!

35. Remember, the solution must:
1.Utilize open, non-commercial licenses
• Texts must be easily editable
• Come from the academic community
• Include peer-review and editing
• Provide free options for students
• Create a useable, accessible repository
• Utilize an efficient distribution and print-on-demand
system
There are models that do this now!

37. Instructors can
• Seek & consider open textbooks
• Participate in open communities
• Promote open textbooks at their colleges
• Negotiate electronic rights

38. Students can
• Speak to their professors and encourage them to
consider open textbooks
• Promote open texts on campus though student govt.
• Get involved with Student PIRGS

39. Colleges can
• Offer support to faculty interested in adopting or writing
open textbooks
• Consider textbook authoring in tenure
• Provide stipends and sabbatical
• Join other colleges in joint OER efforts

40. Some Specific Examples
• OpenStax - Free, openly licensed, peer-reviewed books.
• Methods of Discovery: a guide to research writing
Open Textbook Collections
• OER Commons - There are a lot of textbooks here that will be of interest to us. Under recommended
resources click on "textbooks.“
• Connexions - This is a site that features reusable modules and learning objects as well as some text
Project Sites for OER and Open Textbooks
• Sophia Open Content Initiative - This is from De Anza and a good example of a grant-driven project in
California.
• Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources - This project site has a lot of useful
links.
• Open Education Resources Center for California - This is a good site for more information and
resources in California.
More information on OER at Brainstorm in Progress.
Adapted from a presentation by The Student PIRGs
Illustrations from www.studentpirgs.org and http://commons.wikimedia.org unless otherwise noted.