JISC > Call for Participation: Institution as e-Textbook Publisher

February 28 2014

We are today releasing a new call inviting UK higher education institutions (HEIs) and further education colleges (FECs) to participate in a three year national project to explore the viability of institutions becoming e-textbook publishers.

The project is looking to assess the following question:

Will the institution as e-textbook creator help students by providing a more affordable higher education, and promote a better, more sustainable information environment for libraries, students and faculty?

To participate in this call, bidders are required to:

• Read the call documentation carefully
• Submit a proposal that meets the requirements as listed in the call. This includes a project plan, risk register, budget and documentation to demonstrate your team’s skills and expertise.

Given that the focus of this call is on colleges and universities becoming publishers of e-textbooks, all bids must be led by one or more FECs or HEIs. To be clear, it is possible for institutions to group together to collaborate. In addition, FECs/HEIs bidding may subcontract parts of the work to other bodies (such as a university press, open access publisher, open source technology developer etc).

Successful bidders will be required to: 

• demonstrate knowledge and experience of current and recent e-textbook practice and developments in the UK and elsewhere in the context of current pedagogic practice
• produce two e-textbooks with appropriate functionality
• document and cost the processes and staffing required to produce them
• release and disseminate the e-textbooks using a specific business and licensing model
• provide reports at the end of each year 
• participate in the dissemination and sharing of knowledge and results to the UK education sector

How to submit a proposal:

Read through the Call for participation: Operational Requirement and the annexes
All bidders must register intent to submit a bid by emailing procurement@ja.net
All clarifications must be raised via procurement@ja.net
Submit your proposal by 5 March 2014 at procurement@ja.net

Download the Call for participation and annexes below

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Source and Links Available At:

[https://www.jisc-collections.ac.uk/News/Institution-as-e-textbook-publisher-call-for-particiation/]

NISO Two-Part Webinar: E-books for Education Part 2: Open Textbook Initiatives > September 17 2014 > 12:00 p.m. (ET)

About the Webinar

Just as open access has revolutionized the world of journal literature, so too is it Increasingly being advocated in the e-textbook world. Part 2 of E-books for Education will focus on the efforts to make textbooks electronically available under free open copyright licenses as part of the broader open educational resources movement.

Agenda

Introduction

Todd Carpenter, Executive Director, NISO

Registration

Registration closes on September 17, 2014 at 12:00 p.m. (ET)

[snip]

[Prices]

• NISO Member > $143.00 (US and Canada) / $164.00 (International)
• NASIG Member > $143.00
• Non-Member > $188.00 (US and Canada)  / 224.00 (International)
• Student / $74.00

Source and Link Available At:

[http://www.niso.org/news/events/2014/webinars/open_initiatives/]

PDX Open: Reducing Student Textbook Costs

About PDX Open

Would you like your students to have access to textbooks completely customized to your course and pedagogical design?

Would you like to lower the cost of textbooks for your students?

The Library has an established infrastructure, PDXScholar, to provide PSU faculty a stable, easily accessible and discoverable, permanent, online space on which to publish open textbooks for PSU courses.

To spur this effort, up to five grants for PSU faculty are available. Textbooks developed through this initiative project should be available for roll out in courses offered Fall 2014 or Winter 2015.

$2500 to develop an open access textbook

Grant funds may be used to support the costs associated with developing the textbook, e.g. copyediting and layout, contribution towards course buyout, GA support, etc.

Proposals from individual PSU faculty members or from a group of faculty members are welcome.

Awards will be made by a selection committee comprised of Faculty Senate Library Committee members, Library faculty, an instructional designer from the Office of Academic Innovation, and a representative from ASPSU.

Source and Full Text Available At:

[http://library.pdx.edu/PDXOpen.html]

The Future of Digital Textbooks

Source and Full Text Available At:

[http://www.aascu.org/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=6308]

ticEDUCA 2012: Digital Textbooks Platforms: Trends and Technologies

Analyzing the user experience of digital textbooks and platforms requires some contextual and background research. This was done by analyzing 14 of the most prominent platforms and auxiliary modules.

There were fourteen main platforms briefly analyzed along with their most significant  solutions and resources. Through this analysis it was possible to find some common features and other distinct implementations that can contribute to future work in this area.

In conclusion, there are some contextualized trends observed in the analysis and some considerations to be made regarding the future of digital textbooks.

Source and Full Text Available At:

[http://ticeduca.ie.ul.pt/atas/pdf/196.pdf]

IAE-PEDIA > Open Source Textbooks

Contents 

1 Introduction
2 Developing Free Educational Materials
3 Clearly, An International Movement
4 Publishing Textbook Types of Materials
5 Free, But Not Open Source
6 Free Books and Journals
7 Newspapers (Google)
8 Some Local and National Writing Projects
8.1 Community College Consortium
8.2 Connexions Project
8.3 College Textbooks
8.4 Reusable Learning Objects
8.5 Wikibooks
8.6 Free Math Texts
8.7 Free Tech Books
9 Courses and Course Content
10 Copyright and Fair Use
11 Other Related Open Source Topics
12 References
13 Links to Other IAE Resources
13.1 IAE Blog
13.2 IAE Newsletter
13.3 IAE-pedia (IAE's Wiki)
13.4 I-A-E Books and Miscellaneous Other
14 Author or Authors

Source and Links Available At:

[http://iae-pedia.org/Open_Source_Textbooks]

Open Textbooks for Hong Kong Project

Commencing in January 2013, our project aims to establish a sustainable system which provides free open textbooks at various levels and areas of study for adoption and adaptation. We believe that education should be accessible to all and that learning and teaching will be enhanced when efforts are shared.

Source and Link Available At:

[https://www.opentextbooks.org.hk/index.php]