Group items tagged

"Rice University this year started an unusual textbook-publishing venture whose books are free to download thanks to a mix of grants and revenue from optional "add ons," such as homework problem sets. Although it has published only two titles-for introductory courses in physics and sociology-officials announced on Tuesday that more than 13,000 students had downloaded them in the 10 weeks they've been available."

Neat idea. A variation on freemium.

"This fall Stanford University took a step forward in the open-education movement by offering three free online courses, following in the footsteps of several other elite colleges like Yale University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology."

Lets you make an exportable ebook using whatever Wikipedia articles you want.

President of Empire State College Alan Davis on their unique focus on open education: "One of the reasons why we have positioned and described ourselves as an "open university" is to grab prospective learners' and others' attention, and then be ready to describe what we mean by "open" education, and vice versa. There is a whole philosophy behind it, and it is reinforced in many ways by the impact of technology, with open source software and systems, open education resources, and so on. We are a leader in the state and in the country in exploring these areas too. But even without technology, our approach is truly open in all its dimensions, striving always to overcome the barriers of the "closed" traditional system that restrict so many from getting a university education."

David Wiley on definining OER: "Below, I work from the position that "an ideal OER would help every person in the world attain all the education they desire." In this specific context, I believe the ideal OER would have three characteristics. It would: 1. Be always, immediately, and freely accessible by every person in the world 2. Grant the user the legal permissions necessary to engage in each and every possible usage of the resource with no restrictions whatsoever 3. Effectively support the educational goals of the user"

Excellent overview of open science, open access, etc. "I've never had an idea that couldn't be improved by sharing it with as many people as possible -- and I don't think anyone else has, either. That's why I have become interested in the various "Open" movements making increasing inroads into the practice of modern science. Here I will try to give a brief introduction to Open Access to research literature; in the second instalment I will look at ways in which the same concept of "openness" is being extended to encompass data as well as publications, and beyond that, what a fully Open practice of science might look like."