Open Textbooks Fill Digital Shelves » Village Gamer

"Post-secondary students and instructors in B.C. will be able to access more than 120 open textbooks as dozens of new skills training titles hit digital shelves this fall. Advanced Education Minister Andrew Wilkinson made the announcement at the third-annual BCcampus  OpenTextbook Summit in Vancouver. The summit brought together members of the open textbook community, including students and instructors from Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. Participants offered talks and presentations to demonstrate the growth and potential of the open textbook movement ... Government kick-started the Open Textbook Project with BCcampus in 2012 by providing $1 million in funding for open textbooks in the most highly-enrolled first and second year subjects. In 2013, government made a platform commitment and provided further funding of $1 million to develop 20 additional open texts in skills and technical subjects by September 2015. The Open Textbook Project will see 50 new titles added this fall – more than double the expected number ... The Open Textbook Project is the first of its kind in Canada. There are currently more than 70 open-license titles available online, which means students can download and print these texts for free and instructors can adapt content to fit the needs of their students. More than 50 faculty members at public post-secondary institutions throughout the province currently participate in the project, and it is estimated that 5,400 students in B.C. have saved up to $700,000 to date by using open textbooks ..."