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'Open' your Textbooks, Please

North Seattle College is hosting a Open Textbook workshop on April 20, 2010, from 10-3, with lunch included.  Come and join the effort in making textbooks more affordable. Become an advocate and trainer  for Open Textbooks.

This event is  sponsored by the Community College Open Textbook Project and The Washington State Board of Community And Technical Colleges (SBCTC) and free for all who want to attend.  SBCTC is also offering to pay for mileage of those who are traveling more than 50 Miles  to attend the event.

Advocates and Trainers will learn how to:

  • Foster interest in open textbooks
  • Assist faculty with discovering, selecting, and adopting open textbooks
  • Assist students in choosing a format (online, downloaded, printed, bound)
  • Work with all the stakeholders on campus including bookstore, print
    shop, library, and administration
  • Provide feedback to the authors and educational community
  • Plan, market, and deliver an adoption workshop
  • Find textbook usage and costs on your campus

In addition to travel reimbursement, Advocates and Trainers will receive a $1,500 stipend to assist in their development, as well as to present a faculty workshop about Adopting Open Textbooks at their local college campus.

To register for the Seattle workshop and for information on becoming an Advocate and  Trainer,  and locations for other workshops please visit http://opentextbookadvocatetrainers.ning.com/.

Webinar: Perspectives on Open Textbooks from Two WA Faculty Authors

Join this Elluminate session* about Open Education Resources hosted by Cindy Foreman

  • Date: 11-18-09 (Wednesday)
  • Time: 3:00pm (Please plan to arrive 10 minutes early)
  • Location: Library Room 103 (will be via Elluminate)
  • Contact Info: Brendan Pust, x2012 or bpust@clark.edu

Part 1: “Open Textbooks from an Author’s Perspective” (30 min)

Bio: Robert Beezer is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA.  He joined the faculty there in 1984 after receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois.  Besides advocating for open textbooks, he is also a developer for Sage, a comprehensive open-source program for mathematics.

What motivates someone to write an open textbook?  How much of the editorial and production process is within reach of an individual?  How is the experience different from writing a traditional textbook?  What is different about teaching from an open textbook?  I will answer these questions with examples from my experiences writing and publishing a mathematics textbook, “A First Course in Linear Algebra.

Part 2: “Another Perspective on Authoring an Open Textbook” (30 min)

Bio: David Lippman is a professor of mathematics at Pierce College Ft Steilacoom, a community college in Lakewood, WA, where he has been teaching since 2000.  He is best known in the Washington community college math circle as the guy who created WAMAP.org (aka IMathAS), a free, open-source online course management and math assessment system.

I’ll discuss my journey of writing an open textbook “Math in Society,” including my motivation, how existing open textbooks guided my decisions, using my students as guinea pigs, and my experience with the bookstore. I’ll share some general thoughts on openness and collaboration in textbooks that need consistency and accuracy, and some thoughts about license selection.

*Note: For those who missed it, you may view the recording…

Webinar: Perspectives on Open Textbooks from Two WA Faculty Authors