Why We Fund Open Textbooks (and Plan to Do More) Textbooks aren’t new or novel, and they certainly don’t represent the cutting edge of the Open Educational Resources (OER) movement that the Hewlett Foundation has long supported. But it’s precisely because of the way they are deeply embedded in the education system that they have the potential to shift OER from the exception to the default in schools and colleges across the world. And make no mistake: OER is poised for widespread adoption, with research showing that nearly 10% of K-12 teachers and over 10% of higher education faculty in the United States regularly use OER in some form. That realization, which heavily informed the strategic planning process we began when TJ Bliss and Dana Schmidt came on board as program officers for OER, formed the basis of our revised strategy for OER. Three big trends are driving our push for open textbooks. Indeed, there is a desperate need for open textbooks. By contrast, openly licensed materials are hitting the mark and filling a market niche.
Make Textbooks Affordable | Student PIRGs Everyone knows that textbooks prices are outrageous. Students spend an average of $1,200 a year on textbooks and course materials, and prices have been rising more than for times the rate of inflation for the past two decades! It’s no accident that textbooks are so expensive. Publishing companies are raking in huge profits while engaging in bad practices that drive up costs: issuing new editions that make used books hard to find, bundling textbooks with unnecessary CDs and pass-codes, and more. They get away with it because students don’t have a choice -- we’ve got to buy the book they’re selling, even if the price is outrageous. The good news is that we're making progress. The real momentum comes from lasting solutions like open-source textbooks, which could literally revolutionize the textbook market by offering free online access and reducing costs up to 80%. QUESTIONS?
OULDI (Open University Learning Design Initiative) : About the initiative The OU Learning Design Initiative (OULDI) started with institutional strategic funding in 2007 and has been funded by JISC under the Curriculum Design programme since September 2008. Our work is focused around several key questions: Our aim is to develop and implement a methodology for learning design composed of tools, practice and other innovation that both builds upon, and contributes to, existing academic and practioner research. We have been working across several OU faculties and with 4 other universities to pilot curriculum design activities and relevant supporting tools and to contribute to the broader academic work in the subject. We have produced a range of tools which include: Additional outputs include: Our is underpinned by an ongoing programme of empirical work, aimed at getting a richer understanding of educational design processes.
Top 40 Useful Sites To Learn New Skills The web is a powerful resource that can easily help you learn new skills. You just have to know where to look. Sure, you can use Google, Yahoo, or Bing to search for sites where you can learn new skills , but I figured I’d save you some time. Here are the top 40 sites I have personally used over the last few years when I want to learn something new. Hack a Day - Hack a Day serves up fresh hacks (short tutorials) every day from around the web and one in-depth ‘How-To hack’ guide each week.eHow - eHow is an online community dedicated to providing visitors the ability to research, share, and discuss solutions and tips for completing day-to-day tasks and projects.Wired How-To Wiki - Collaborate with Wired editors and help them build their extensive library of projects, hacks, tricks and tips.
OER Commons Use and Abuse of Reusable Learning Objects | Polsani | Journal of Digital Information 1 Movements in the Learning Object Economy In the past 5-7 years there have been considerable efforts in the computer-mediated learning field towards standardization of metadata elements to facilitate a common method for identifying, searching and retrieving Learning Objects (LOs). Recently, a consensus has emerged among the various bodies spearheading these efforts - including the IEEE Learning Technology Standards Committee (LTSC) Learning Object Metadata Working Group, the IMS Global Learning Consortium, Inc., and the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative - on what these common metadata elements might be. Similar efforts to develop a common conceptual definition of LOs have yet to emerge. Accessibility: the LO should be tagged with metadata so that it can be stored and referenced in a database Reusability: once created, a LO should function in different instructional contexts Interoperability: the LO should be independent of both the delivery media and knowledge management systems
3 Major Publishers Sue Open-Education Textbook Start-Up - Wired Campus Open-education resources have been hailed as a trove of freely available information that can be used to build textbooks at virtually no cost. But a copyright lawsuit filed last month presents a potential roadblock for the burgeoning movement. A group of three large academic publishers has sued the start-up Boundless Learning in federal court, alleging that the young company, which produces open-education alternatives to printed textbooks, has stolen the creative expression of their authors and editors, violating their intellectual-property rights. The publishers Pearson, Cengage Learning, and Macmillan Higher Education filed their joint complaint last month in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The publishers’ complaint takes issue with the way the upstart produces its open-education textbooks, which Boundless bills as free substitutes for expensive printed material. “They’re wrongfully claiming ownership of open knowledge,” he said. Publisher Complaint
JISC CETIS - Centre for Educational Technology and Interoperability Standards Open Educational Resources Resources Index of John's OER-related blog posts Date: Feb 2011 CETIS OER Technical Support Project Final Report Date: May 2010 The CETIS OER Technical Support Project was funded by JISC to provide support to the JISC HEA Open Educational Resources Pilot Programme. Open Educational Resources – Opportunities and Challenges for Higher Education Date: Sep 2008 Open Educational Resources- Opportunities and Challengers for Higher Education. OER resources Date: Jan 2007 Open Educational Resources Publications
14 Terrible Things You Didn’t Know About The Deep Web 1. Also called the hidden web and deepnet, the deep web is where search engines have not indexed the information, and so “invisible” to the mainstream public. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. Browse: Collection: Khan Academy .desu si egaugnal gnimmargorp avaJ ehT .gninnalp dna ,tnemeganam ,ecneics ,gnireenigne ni ... (more) .desu si egaugnal gnimmargorp avaJ ehT .gninnalp dna ,tnemeganam ,ecneics ,gnireenigne ni smelborp gnivlos rof seuqinhcet gnipoleved no si sisahpmE .scipot decnavda detceles dna scihparg retupmoc ,gnihcraes dna gnitros ,serutcurts atad ,sdohtem laciremun ,secafretni resu lacihparg ,stpecnoc gnimmargorp revoc smelborp gnimmargorp ylkeeW .esruoc eht fo sucof eht si tnempoleved dna ngised erawtfos detneiro-tcejbO .snoitacilppa cifitneics dna gnireenigne rof sdohtem lanoitatupmoc dna tnempoleved erawtfos latnemadnuf stneserp esruoc sihT (less) Subject: Science and Technology Material Type: Assessments Full Course Homework and Assignments Lecture Notes Syllabi Collection: MIT OpenCourseWare Institution: Author: George Kocur Remix and Share
Digitale Lehrmittelfreiheit Webinars 2012 Archives « Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources Apr 9 OER Impact Research Faculty and Student Voices Archive and Slides Available March 12 Celebrate Open Education Week Archives and Slides Available, Boyoung Chae and Jen Klaudinyi Archives and Slides Available Natalie Clewell, Cynthia Alexander, and Paul Golisch Archives and Slides Available Donna Gaudet and Quill West Feb 5 Open Textbook Publishing and Adoptions Archive and Slides Available Dec 11 California Community Colleges Share it Forward with CC-BY Archive and Slides Available Nov 13 Fostering Open Policies on Your Campus and Beyond Archive and Slides Available October 30 OER and Open Textbook Adoption and Sustainability Archive and Slides Available October 2 Libraries Lead the Way: Open Courses, OER, and Open Policy Archive and Slides Available. June 11 Competency-based Learning and OER Archive and Slides Available. April 30 Open Education, MOOCs, and Student Access Archive and slides available. March 26 OER Authoring Tools Archive and slides available. Archive and slides available. Like this:
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