Power Point on Open Access Textbooks

1. Open
Textbooks, Ope
n Doors

2. What is an Open Access
Textbook?
 An open textbook is an openly-licensed
textbook offered online by its author(s).
 Why are they growing in popularity ?

3. Who Creates Open
Textbooks?
 By faculty and researchers from colleges
& universities around the world.
 Teams of authors, illustrators, editors are
often paid by academic departments or
supported through grants or foundations.
 OpenStax

4. Advantages of OA Textbooks
 Easily Customizable
 New Editions are Optional
 Corrections are immediate
 Tremendous cost savings for students and thus lowering one
economic barrier to postsecondary education
 Distribute to your students via online, downloadable PDF, or print-
on-demand.
 Writing Spaces

5. Evaluating OA Textbooks
 The same way you evaluate traditional
textbooks.
 How do you currently review your
textbooks?
 Peer review occurs prior to publication.
Peer validation is more like a book review
by experts in the field.

6. Finding OA Textbooks
 No tools yet for searching across all open
access textbooks but …
 University of Minnesota Open Access
Textbook Catalog
 Merlot
 Smarthistory

7. How To Create OA Textbooks
 Easy to use software tools for writing or
customizing OA Textbooks!
 Creating Open Access Textbooks
 Biology

8. According to a recent national survey, 70%
of US college students say the sometimes skip
buying textbooks because of the cost.

9. Currently Required @
Brooklyn College
$213.00

10. Ways We Can Help Our Students
 Entering course materials into "My Textbooks" function in CUNYfirst
to publicize materials for your courses so students can shop around
for the best prices. Mandated by the Higher Education Opportunity
Act.
 Professors can help to reduce textbooks costs by considering
alternative editions—not just the latest edition.
 Instead of coursework packets, consider links to materials in
databases like JSTOR, Academic Search Complete, Lexis/Nexis.
 Create OA textbooks, especially when so much information is freely
available on the Internet.

11. Incentives
 Many colleges and Universities offer financial
incentives to create OA Textbooks.
 President Gould announced her intention to
establish a fund ($25,000.00) to support the
use of Open Access source material by our
faculty.
 This summer, the Provost, in consultation with
the deans, will develop a proposal procedure
for faculty.

12.  Open.bccampus.ca – a list of open textbooks curated by British
Columbia Ministry of Advanced Education, Innovation and
Technology
 OpenStax College – High quality open textbook publisher based
out of Rice University.
 Open Textbook Catalog – maintained by the University of
Minnesota, this open textbook repository is a catalog of 150+
existing open textbooks.
 Orange Grove Text – Florida’s operational repository project of
open source educational materials.
 College Open Textbooks – lists open textbooks by subject, many
of which have been peer reviewed.
 InTech – World’s largest multidisciplinary open access publisher of
books covering the fields of Science, Technology and Medicine.
 The Open Access Textbooks was a two-year initiative that has
created a sustainable model for the discovery, production, and
dissemination of open textbooks.