The positive, often serendipitous news about the Open Course Library continues to appear. Shortly after our launch, the Saylor Foundation adapted 11 Open Course Library courses for use by self-learners. In the process they made the courses easier to access. You see, our first batch of courses were released as…
Publishing Open Textbooks to Lulu and Create Space
I am pleased to announce that Elizabeth Hanson and Jenae Kirby, instructors at Shoreline Community College, have co-authored an open textbook that faculty and students can use for free. On-Ramp to Nursing Assistant Certified is designed for students who speak English as a second language who are beginning their healthcare career training.…
48 Million+ views in one month
It’s been exactly one month since the band Walk Off the Earth uploaded their cover of Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know” to YouTube. More than 48 million views later, they are on fire and courting multiple record labels. Think of it this way, if 1 in 20 viewers bought…
CA’s Digital Open Source Library and WA’s Open Course Library
California Bill Pushes for Free Online College Books (via KQED MindShift) Here’s a quick summary of the bills (there are actually 2): • The first CA bill would create 50 open textbooks for high-enrollment college courses that would be free online and available in print for ~$20. Book contracts would be…
How To Protect Your IP Through Open Licensing (Thoughts on Pearson’s OpenClass LMS)
Pearson’s new OpenClass LMS hit the Google Apps Marketplace today. While this has already been covered in several places, I’ve had many discussions about the wide array of learning management systems out there, and the one question that comes up repeatedly is “how do we know they won’t just get…