Archive for September, 2008

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Call for Textbook Reviewers

September 30, 2008

Want to do your part to lower the cost of college textbooks?  Consider reviewing a chapter or two of an open textbook for the Community College Open Textbook Project.

Select a chapter to review from the list of open textbooks.

Review Criteria

Provide feedback for a chapter of an open textbook in terms of the following:

1. Clarity and comprehensibility – content, including the instructions and exercises
2. Accuracy
3. Readability – in terms of logic, sequencing, and flow
4. Consistency of course materials – consistency in the content language and use of key terms as is necessary to facilitate understanding by novice users
5. Appropriateness of content – appropriateness of the material for community college level courses
6. Interface – technological issues such as broken links, improperly displayed graphics, and ease of navigation
7. Content usefulness – the ways in which the content could be useful for teachers, students, and those with a general interest in the subject area
8. Modularity – the ability to adapt, rearrange, add, delete and modify the content by sections
9. Content errors – the presence or absence of factual errors, grammatical errors, and typographical errors in the content
10. Reading level – appropriate for community college level students
11. Cultural relevance – use of examples that are inclusive of diverse races and ethnicities

Send your open textbook review to info@collegeopentextbooks.org

Reminder in daily planner to review open textbooks.

Reminder in daily planner to review open textbooks.

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Opening Up Education available

September 30, 2008

The editors of Opening Up Education, Toru Iiyoshi and Vijay Kumar, along with John Seely Brown, invite you to join them for an online conversation about open education on Thursday, October 2, 2008 11 PDT/2 EDT.  Join the conversation at http://commons.carnegiefoundation.org/openingupeducation

Selected chapters of the book, Opening Up Education, are now available for free PDF download.

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Dev Math Course Redesign

September 26, 2008

Faculty at California community colleges are invited  to participate in a program of Faculty Collaborations for Course Transformations (FACCTS), to support use of effective instructional practices for the Basic Skills Initiative in Developmental Math courses.   The FACCTS project includes an Alternate OER Pedagogy component to incorporate the work of the Course Redesign teams into Open Educational Resources initiatives.

Results from the FACCTS project will be available as open educational resources (OER), in liaison with the Community College Consortium for OER and other initiatives to share knowledge and resources. One of the secondary goals of the program is to develop enhanced tools and processes for knowledge sharing.

The FACCTS Program for Development Mathematics in the California Community Colleges is supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

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Student Role in Open Textbooks

September 22, 2008

Dr.  Judy Baker will be presenting on the student role in supporting the use of open textbooks at the Textbook Town Hall Forum at the Kennedy-King College Theater on September 25, 2008 at 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm.  The Forum is a project of the City Colleges of Chicago District Student Government Associations and Illinois PIRG. 

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Open Textbook Meeting on 9/29

September 13, 2008

Open Textbook advocates are invited to join a virtual meeting on Sept. 29th.  For details, go to OKFN wiki or blog.

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Digital Books – Comm. College Times

September 11, 2008

A recent Community College Times article, Digital books become more appealing, quotes the director of the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER) regarding the benefits and caveats associated with use of digital textbooks for community college courses.

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Kansas City Star on Textbook Legislation

September 6, 2008

Steve Rosen, of the Kansas City Star, addresses the impact of recent textbook legislation on lowering costs for students in his latest Business column.   In addition to legislation passed in August (Higher Education Opportunity Act) that requires greater transparency about textbook prices by publishers, Rosen asserts that technology, specifically digital open textbooks, may well have the most significant influence on the textbook market.   He cites the efforts of the Student Public Interest Research Groups and the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources to support adoption of open (and free) textbooks.

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