Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Sunday, April 12, 2009

The case, and place, for OA textbooks

Gary W. Matkin, Open Learning: What Do Open Textbooks Tell Us About the Revolution in Education?  Center for Studies in Higher Education, March 2009.  (Thanks to the OKAPI Spotlight.)

Abstract:   This paper provides a summary and assessment of the current development of open textbooks and describes a possible direction for future development and funded support of open textbook projects. This paper provides answers to the following questions: Why do we need open textbooks? What are open textbooks (in their various forms)? How are open textbooks developed and distributed? And finally, when will open textbooks be produced? As these questions are addressed, other dimensions relevant to the Open Education Resource (OER) movement are also revealed and discussed.