Archive for September, 2009

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Peer-reviewed Open Textbooks

September 29, 2009

Peer reviews of open textbooks are now available from the Community College Open Textbook Collaborative.

Art

Smarthistory: Art History Conversation (2009)

Business

Core Concepts of Marketing: A Global Text (2008)
Electronic Commerce: The Strategic Perspective (2008)
eMarketing,The Essential Guide to Online Marketing, 2nd edition (2008)
Principles of Management (2009)

Computer Science

Basic Computing Using Windows
Introduction to Computer Science (2009)
Quick Start to Excel 2002 (XP) (1998-2003)

Education

RSS Feed for the unit Key skill assessment unit: Problem Solving (2007)
The Theory and Practice of Online Learning (2nd ed.) 
Common Wisdom: Peer Production of Educational Materials (2005)

Engineering

A First Course in Electrical and Computer Engineering

English and Composition

Online Technical Writing
Key skill assessment: Communication (2007)
Electronic Literature Collection Volume 1 (2006)
Methods of Discovery: A Guide to Research Writing

Languages and Communications

Spanish I (2009)

Literature

USA Literature in Brief (2007)

Math

Understanding Algebra
Applied Finite Mathematics
Collaborative Statistics
Collaborative Statistics: Custom Version
Dimensions (Geometry)
Elementary Algebra
Free High School Math Texts, Grade 10 (2008)
Fundamentals of Mathematics
Intermediate Algebra (2007)
Vector Calculus

Psychology

Psychology: A student Friendly Approach (2004)

Science

Calculus-Based Physics I

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Free eTextbooks at Queen’s Univ

September 26, 2009

Campus bookstore website links students to free textbooks used in Queen’s University courses.   Find out details from Jeff Young’s article “College Bookstores Hope to Turn Their Web Sites Into E-Book Portals” in The Wired Campus.

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FL Legislature Sets Up Open Access Textbook Task Force

September 19, 2009

As reported by The Orange Grove, “the 2009 Florida Legislature requested (HB 7121 or SB 844) that an Open Access Textbooks Task Force (OATTF) be created to:

  1. create an inventory of existing open access textbooks
  2. make recommendations for encouraging and promoting faculty development and use of open access textbooks
  3. identify barriers to the implementation of open access textbooks.

The OATTF members represent a cross section of Florida’s state colleges and the state universities and system offices.  Entities/roles represented on the task force are:  faculty, chief information officers, librarians, repository, University Press of Florida, business officers, deans, student government, Division of Colleges, Board of Governors, Florida Distance Learning Consortium, and Orange Grove Texts Plus.”

Inside Higher Ed describes Orange Grove Texts Plus in a recent article: Free, But at What Cost?

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OER Success Stories

September 16, 2009

UNESCO is collecting Open Educational Resources Success Stories.  Submit yours!

A Duraspace blog posting recently announced a contest to collect OER Success Stories.  To be eligible for the $50 prize, submit your OER Success Story by September 28th.   

Faculty can view a list of all the colleges that have adopted the Collaborative Statistics open textbook at Connexions (scroll down to Table 3: Known Adopters of Collaborative Statistics).

Flat World Knowledge announces that more than 40,000 college students at 400 colleges will use their digital, DRM-free textbooks in the fall 2009 semester.

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New Courseware: Open & Green

September 10, 2009

The Catering Equipment Suppliers Association (CESA) and Oxford Brookes University have partnered to launch the Save IT! campaign to promote energy savings in the kitchen.  As part of the campaign, they have made open source training resources available, including podcasts about food safety and carbon management.  For access to the training resources, go to http://www.open-course.org.uk.

Full Story from PRWeb UK

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Eval of Foundation Copyright Issues

September 6, 2009

Find out what foundations think about copyright and open licensing from this August 2009 report by Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Ford Foundation and the Open Society Institute: An Evaluation of Private Foundation Copyright Licensing Policies, Practices and Opportunities.

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Open vs. Free vs. Digital Learning Content

September 6, 2009

In her July 13th blog, “Free, open, and digital – oh my!” Karen of K12 Open Education clarifies the important differences between free, open, and digital materials.

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Open Textbooks in the News This Week

September 6, 2009

Two news articles published this week discuss open textbooks:  “4 Ways to Get College Textbooks Free” in US News & World Reports and College textbooks go online” in the Mountain View Voice.

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New Open Textbook: Math in Society

September 3, 2009

David Lipmann, professor at Pierce College in Washington State, has released his new open textbook,”Math in Society.”   The textbook is available for free online at http://www.pierce.ctc.edu/dlippman/mathinsociety/ 

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Bissell on Open Licensing

September 1, 2009

To better understand the reasoning behind open licensing, read Ahrash N. Bissell’s article,Permission granted: open licensing for educational resources at Open Learning: The Journal of Open and Distance Learning.

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