Open Textbooks and OER Webinar

ALT Copyright and Online Learning SIG logo, green text on white backgroundLast week Lorna Campbell, OER Service Manager, and Dhara Snowden, Textbook Programme Manager at UCL Press, joined Jane Secker and Chris Morrison for an ALT Copyright and Online Learning SIG webinar about OER and Open Textbooks.

As institutions face rapidly increasing etextbook costs as they move away from print materials in response to the pivot to online learning triggered by the COVID pandemic, and longer-term trends in academic publishing, there has been renewed interest in open textbooks. A number of universities have set up new open eBook presses or dedicated lists to host or publish open textbooks including University College London, University of Edinburgh, NUI Galway, University of Sussex and Manchester University. Open textbooks have long been the common form of open educational resources in North America, with funding to support this activity, however to date, they have not seen extensive uptake in the UK, where there are different models of textbook use and engagement with OER tends to be supported by learning technologists rather than dedicated OER librarians.

This webinar explored different models of open textbook and OER adoption and support in the UK and the US, and look at different approaches for managing open content effectively.