Archive for the ‘August 2008’ Category

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Open Content at Google Books

August 14, 2009

On August 13th, Google announced that authors can now use Google Books to distribute their Creative Commons licensed work.  Authors benefit from using a CC license because it allows them to distribute their work more widely and clearly communicate how they want the content to be used and shared.  Readers who download these books can use the work in ways specified by the license such as giving proper credit to the author on any remixes or further public distributions.

To date, nine open-access books are available for download from Google Books:

55 Ways to Have Fun with Google by Lenssen
Blown to Bits by Abelson, Ledeen & Lewis
Bound by Law? by Aoki, Boyle & Jenkins
Code: Version 2 by Lessig
Democratizing Innovation by von Hippel
Federal Budget Deficits: America’s great consumption binge by Courant & Gramlich
The Future of the Internet — And How to Stop It by Zittrain
Little Brother by Doctorow
A World’s Fair for the Global Village by Malamud

Consider adding your own textbook to this list!

Posted in Announcements, August 2008 | Leave a Comment »

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Report on Digital and Open Textbooks

August 26, 2008

The Student Public Interest Research Groups (PIRG) has released a report on their recent study of digital textbooks: “Course Correction: How Digital Textbooks are Off Track and How to Set Them Straight.”  The report recommends support for “open textbooks” that are offered free online.  You can download the entire Report at the Student PIRG website.  Today’s  LA Times and the The Chronicle of Higher Education Wired Campus provide media coverage about the Report.

Posted in Announcements, August 2008 | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment »

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Introduction to OER tutorial

August 25, 2008

Dr. Judy Baker, Director of the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources, recently developed a 12-module tutorial titled “Introduction to Open Educational Resources.”  The tutorial is available to download as a 74 page Word document with links for educators interested in self-paced training.  

This tutorial is designed to provide U.S. community college educators with the knowledge and skills necessary to find, use, develop, and share open educational resources.  In addition, educators will discover a variety of worldwide efforts underway to make educational opportunity available to more people.  While educators are likely to benefit personally and professionally from completing this tutorial, they may find that the biggest reward is in meeting others like themselves and joining in the OER Movement.

Tutorial contents include:

Module 1: Overview
Module 2: Open Courseware
Module 3: Copyright, Fair Use, and TEACH Act
Module 4: Tools to Identify and Select OER
Module 5: Accessibility and Universal Design
Module 6: OER Discipline-Specific Sources
Module 7: Use of Primary Sources
Module 8: Sources of Open Textbooks
Module 9: OER Development and Collaboration
Module 10: OER Delivery, Storage, and Organization
Module 11: Support for OER Use on Campus
Module 12: Future of OER Movement

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Online Open Textbook Seminar

August 18, 2008

Mark your calendar for a @ONE Lunch ‘n Learn Desktop Seminar, titled Save $$ with Free and Open Textbooks, scheduled for Thursday, November 6th at noon (PST).  Dr. Judy Baker, Director of the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources, will demonstrate how community college faculty can begin to address the rising price of textbooks by adopting free or low-cost high-quality textbooks.   Participants will learn how to find free learning content that they can download, customize, and disseminate to students.

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Auditor’s Report: Textbook Affordability

August 15, 2008

The California State Auditor’s office has released its August 2008 report titled: “Affordability of College Textbooks.”  Noteworthy is that this report gives a nod to the efforts of Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources to reduce the cost of textbooks and supports the need to address articulation issues.

Chapter 4 of the Report addresses open educational resources and California State University’s Digital Marketplace as solutions.  The chapter summary states: “With the development and implementation of open educational resources and the Digital Marketplace, students at California’s public colleges and universities could soon obtain free or relatively affordable educational materials. Offering no‑cost, online educational content that is similar to that of traditional textbooks, open educational resources could change the ways in which instructors and students access instructional and research materials.  The Digital Marketplace, a Web‑based project conceived by California State University (CSU), would allow faculty to substitute digitized educational materials for traditional printed textbooks, and instructors could select either free or fee‑based materials. The California Community Colleges (community colleges) support both initiatives, which are in the early stages of development, the University of California (UC) is in the process of collaborating with the community colleges to increase the use of open educational resources, and CSU is investing resources to advance the Digital Marketplace. If fully implemented, these strategies will likely change the role of campus bookstores and decrease textbook costs for students.”

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Open Textbook Featured

August 12, 2008

Inside Higher Ed featured Collaborative Statistics in today’s article: Open Textbook Meets Community Colleges. This open textbook is available at Connexions.

The Community College Open Textbook Project seeks peer reviewers for Collaborative Statistics and other open textbooks.  For details, contact Judy Baker, Director of the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources at bakerjudy[AT]foothill.edu.

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Ed Tech Issue on OER Available Online

August 1, 2008

The November – December 2007 issue of “Educational Technology” on Open-Access Educational Resources is now available online.  Members of the CCCOER may be particularly interested in the article by C. Sidney Burrus titled: Connexions: An Open Educational Resource for the 21st Century.

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