The most rapid developments in the world of e-books have taken place in the popular market for fiction and non-fiction monographs. However, with the development of new standards such as EPUB 3 that support multimedia and the improvements in reading devices, the penetration of electronic versions of trade books has advanced quite rapidly. The market for digital textbooks, however, has grown at a more modest rate for a variety of reasons. The electronic textbook maretplace is still working through some very complex technological and business model issues.
This two-part webinar series will explore the nascent world of electronic textbooks and how publishers, students, and librarians are dealing with these new products.
Just as open access has revolutionized the world of journal literature, so too is it increasingly being advocated in the e-textbook world. Part 2 of E-books for Education will focus on the efforts to make textbooks electronically available under free open copyright licenses as part of the broader open educational resources movement.
Click here to view the agenda for Part One.
This presentation explores the current landscape for academic libraries' involvement in publishing e-textbooks, focusing on the Open Access textbook pilot project currently in place between OSU Libraries and Press and the OSU Extended Campus. Participants will learn about challenges and gain some takeaways to assist in investigating their own partnerships.
Our textbooks will have an OSU Press imprint but since it is a joint project, that will have to be indicated. we also want all the books to have a similar look and feel like OpenStax only with more interesting/inspiring covers.
Yes, this is the OSU Press Editorial Board. They meet twice a year or meet virtually as needed to make decisions, etc. They will evaluate the proposals and make the recommendations, typically after we have had a manuscript proposal reviewed.
Good question. We also encountered training issues with faculty simply downloading ebook versions so that is something we will need to consider offering. It is a question to put to our online education/distant education librarian.
One of the most effective techniques: the author herself promotes the textbook at appropriate conferences, etc. It is a technique we encourage all Press authors to employ in order to complement our own promotion via targeted channels and events.
For two years, the Student Governing Association at Kansas State University has been the primary funder of the Open/Alternative Textbook Initiative. This project awards stipends up to $5,000 to K-State faculty to develop an alternative to the traditional print textbook. To date, awards totaling $96,250 have been made. Over the next year, it is projected that over 12,000 students in 20 courses will not have to buy textbooks in these courses saving students nearly $1,000,000. Of course, every year each open textbook continues to be used these numbers will increase incrementally. This presentation will cover student/library funding of the project, faculty/library collaboration in the initial proposal and initiative, assessment goals, and more recently, interest in the initiative on the part of the president and provost of the university.
The quality of OA textbooks varies, but overall it is great that they are available. Yes they would most likely save students money, but whether they will not depend on the specific situation. We'd love to fund faculty members to adopt or adapt an OER.
Brian: At K-State there isn't a formal review process. We view these as living, evolving resources and we want to encourage faculty to experiment to create, adopt, and/or adopt a resource will work best in their course.
Faye: At OSU, even if one of our projects was an existing open textbook, we would still put it under review. If it underwent lots of revisions, we might do another review. It depends on the amount and kinds of revisions.
Faculty from any discipline can apply, but we don't cover all courses. The courses that are using an open/alternative textbook are the ones that had a faculty member apply for and receive an award. It is not mandatory for faculty to use one.
Boundless began by offering students affordable textbooks created from open educational resources, helping students save money. Today, the company has grown to serve the entire educational ecosystem by curating, creating, and publishing a range of open content. Using open licensing allows Boundless to serve everyone from students to educators to authors by making it simple to access, share, and customize the resources within its platform. This presentation will discuss the benefits of using open licenses in expanding access to education.
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