From “Free Books: Why Not?” by Allen B. Downey -
Reasons to consider authoring a free textbook and suggestions about how…
An example is Learning Perl The Hard Way distributed by Green Tea Press.
The National Association of College Stores is experimenting with distributing open textbooks via epub. Their pilot digital delivery program is operational at approximately 60 colleges and universities including Anne Arundel Community College Bookstore. CampusEBookstore.com offers over 200 literature titles as free open licensed content that are digitally enhanced using the epub format and can be read using PC and MAC computers and many of the EBook reading devices.
California State University recently launched its Affordable Learning Solutions Campaign to assist faculty with use of quality educational content that is more affordable for their students.
The Affordable Learning Solutions website provides information about:
If you are already using no-cost or low-cost content in your classes, consider sharing your practices with your colleagues.
When asked what textbook she would write, Sandra Day O’Connor said “It would not be a textbook: it would be a website.“ See her website at http://ourcourts.org. Sandra Day O’Connor is the current Chancellor of the College of William and Mary and a former Supreme Court Justice.
What textbook would you write?
Gary Matkin, Dean of Continuing Education at University of California, Irvine, critiques the current status of the open textbook development in the context of educational change in his March 2009 paper titled: Open Learning: What Do Open Textbooks Tell Us About the Revolution in Education? He asserts that the shift from traditional to openly available digitized textbooks represents “the most profound challenge that educators have ever faced.”
Peer reviews of open textbooks are now available from the Community College Open Textbook Collaborative.
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)
Basic Computing Using Windows
Introduction to Computer Science (2009)
Quick Start to Excel 2002 (XP) (1998-2003)
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)
A First Course in Electrical and Computer Engineering
Online Technical Writing
Key skill assessment: Communication (2007)
Electronic Literature Collection Volume 1 (2006)
Methods of Discovery: A Guide to Research Writing
Spanish I (2009)
USA Literature in Brief (2007)
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: A student Friendly Approach (2004)
Calculus-Based Physics I
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.
Gov. Schwarzenegger has released the Free Digital Textbook Initiative Phase 1 Report. See http://gov.ca.gov/press-release/12996/ .
Free digital textbooks are listed at the CLRN website.
The Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources has published two Knols about open and free textbooks:
The Community College Week Fall 2008 Technology Supplement features an article titled ’Redefining Open Books for the 21st Century’ by Eric Frank and David Wiley of Flat World Knowledge. The article explains a for-profit model for making textbooks more affordable.
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