Open Books, Not Open Wallets: How OER Helps Students Spend Less and Learn More

The Open Books, Not Open Wallets: How OER Helps Students Spend Less and Learn More panel was great. In case you missed it, here are some of the materials shared:

Opening the Textbook

Cover of Opening the Textbook

Thanks to Jill Cirasella for pointing out this Ithaka briefing paper on the role of libraries in open education resources.

There’s a lot of great stuff in the paper, including this interesting musing:

What if…collaboration among university presses, university libraries, campus-based instructional design groups, and faculty could produce the best of class textbooks? The presses have needed expertise in developing collections, editing manuscripts, and managing distribution channels; libraries have a strong position on campus to support faculty and students and could identify useful materials, whether created on campus or
elsewhere.

“Eben Upton is best known as the man behind the Raspberry Pi, a tiny, $25 computer designed to help turn kids into programmers. Upton priced it at $25 because he thought that’s around what an average textbook cost: “I now understand that’s an incorrect estimate. If we had a better idea of what school textbooks cost we would have had an easier job with the engineering over the years,” he joked to Wired years later.

It’s a funny story but also a sad story. Textbooks are expensive. More expensive than most non-students even realize.”

Open Education Resources Work for Faculty and Students – Just Publics @365