Webinar: UK Open Textbooks

For the next webinar, we are going in-house, with OER Hub’s very own, Dr Beck Pitt as the next speaker. Beck will talk about the UK Open Textbook project which was funded by the Hewlett Foundation. Join us on Wednesday 3rd July, 4pm GMT, if you can.

Beck has written a brief background to her talk, as follows:

Results of the UK Open Textbooks Project: What? Why? How?

Open Textbooks have successfully mainstreamed open educational resources (OER) in North America, but are yet to achieve the same impact elsewhere. With UK students facing similar challenges with regard to the cost of education as their counterparts in the United States, can open textbooks provide an answer to barriers to participate in UK Higher Education (HE)?

In this webinar, Beck will explore the background to, and the results of the recent Hewlett Foundation funded UK Open Textbook project. Utilising the methods of open textbook providers OpenStax and the Open Textbook Library the project explored the transferability of established textbook adoption approaches within the context of UK Higher Education. The presentation will also explore the results of a recent survey of UK HE educators regarding OER and the potential of open textbooks as well as give further insights into current open textbook use. The UK Open Textbook project revealed a fantastic opportunity for open textbooks as a catalyst and focus for OER strategy in the UK and the presentation will close by indicating some strategic directions and reflecting on where next for open textbooks and OER within the UK HE context.

The webinar took place on Wednesday 3rd July 2018, 4pm GMT. A recording is available on our YouTube page and below: