A closer look at B.C.'s open textbook plan - Macleans.ca

"Media outlets have reported widely on the B.C. government’s announcement of Canada’s first official open textbook project, to be co-ordinated by BCcampus. This Maclean’s On Campus post betrays an egregious misunderstanding of open textbooks and the project to date, and what’s more, an educator wrote it. Professor Todd Pettigrew did a cursory examination of the open textbook links BCcampus posted on our own blog entry, and did not contact us directly to pose any questions he had before passing judgment. In his opinion, B.C.’s open textbook project might be “a recipe for disaster” because the texts will be “government textbook[s] created by a committee.” The truth is BCcampus has already started on a pilot project to create a limited number of open textbooks, and faculty from B.C.’s post-secondary system are writing them—faculty like Adrienne Watt from Northwest Community College. Not only that, but they are being reviewed by faculty to ensure quality control (just as traditionally-published textbooks are) ..."