On Tuesday, May 3rd I recorded a 15 minute segment for the Southwestern Ohio Council for Higher Education on Think TV, the local public television station in Dayton, Ohio. My topic was the rise of digital textbooks and options available for students and faculty to access and produce textbooks and learning materials. Below is a snapshot of my general comments with links to various sources for more information.
Our current textbook system is broken. We have arrived at $200 textbooks and have students who cannot afford them. As a result, students try to borrow a textbook from the library or a friend (sometimes the older edition), purchase a used one, or go without. Neither of these options provides revenue to the publisher, thus resulting in higher price points in an effort to recover the costs or production. What can we do about this catch 22? Continue reading Digital Textbooks and Open Educational Resources – Summary of SOCHE Think TV session
Today I attended the webinar sponsored by the Ohio Board of Regents regarding Ohio’s digital textbook project. Speakers included: Darlene McCoy, Associate Vice Chancellor, Division of Affordability and Efficiency, University System of Ohio; Dr. Steve Acker, Research Director, eTextOhio Project; Dr. Shu Z. Schiller, Assistant Professor of Information Systems at Wright State University; and Eric Frank, President and Co-Founder, Flat World Knowledge.
Here are some notes I took from the webinar:
Steve Acker, Research Director, eTextOhio Project – Improving the education of those in the state (of Ohio) is our mission and we hope to graduate 200,000 students in the next 10 years.
Steve provided a brief history of Ohio’s Digital Textbook Project which includes: Continue reading Ohio’s Digital Textbook Project Webinar Summary
On Monday I visited SAGE in Thousand Oaks, California and had the chance to talk with Michele Sordi, Vice President and Editorial Director for the Higher Education Group, about digital textbooks. We discussed the SAGE textbook program, barriers to digital textbook adoption, and the role of librarians in digital textbooks on campus.
Michele will join me, along with Eric Frank of FlatWorld Knowledge and Steve Acker, Research Director for the eTextOhio Project at the ACRL Conference next Spring on a panel, The Digital Textbook Movement: Opportunities and Challenges for Academic Libraries.
Questions for Michele can be emailed to firstname.lastname@example.org
The University System of Ohio has been a national leader in supporting innovations that help eliminate textbook costs as a financial barrier to college. Solving the textbook affordability crisis for Ohio college students is more pressing than ever, as large numbers of students turn to public institutions for high-quality, affordable education.
Please join Darlene McCoy, Associate Vice Chancellor, Division of Affordability and Efficiency, University System of Ohio; Dr. Steve Acker, Research Director, eTextOhio Project; Dr. Shu Z. Schiller, Assistant Professor of Information Systems at Wright State University; and Eric Frank, President and Co-Founder, Flat World Knowledge, for a one-hour webcast to examine:
* Why textbooks costs have sky-rocketed
* How textbook costs impact students, faculty and institutions.
* Current initiatives by the University System of Ohio to address textbook affordability
* What defines open educational resources and open textbooks, and how they can reduce costs by 80 percent, while increasing quality and accessibility
Date: Monday, October 25th, 2010
Time: 3:00 pm ET
Duration: 40 minutes followed by a live Q&A session