Libros de Texto a Costo Cero | Universo Abierto

Google English: "Textbooks at zero cost

A growing number of institutions are using open access, high quality and open licensed educational materials, commonly known as Open Educational Resources (OER). These educational materials may include modules, textbooks, videos, software and other tools, materials and techniques used to support access to knowledge. Zero Textbook Cost Courses (ZTC) is one of the Open Educational Resources initiatives to improve teaching, learning and accessibility for all students.

For years, everyone, from teachers to states, universities and foundations, have published free textbooks, but now some schools are taking a step further: they are redesigning their undergraduate programs so that students do not have to buy a single textbook They are not the first to notice the fall in non-fiction sales; people are turning more to digital resources such as training websites, YouTube and OER (open educational resources).

"Open educational resources" means high quality teaching, learning and research resources that are in the public domain or that have been released in accordance with an intellectual property license that allows their free use and reuse by others, and may include other resources that are legally available and free to students. Open educational resources include, but are not limited to, complete courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, content created by faculty, real-time videos, tests, software and any other tools, materials or techniques used to support access to knowledge.

In this way, College of the Canyons (COC), a community college in California, obtained a grant to launch its first Zero Textbook Program Cost Technical Assistance Contract Program that will soon offer more professional technical education programs or to eliminate the cost of commercial textbooks through the use of open educational resources. The program is endowed with 5 million dollars.

The California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office created the Zero Textbook Cost Degree program after conducting studies on the rising costs of education and its impact on student attendance and course selection. At the COC, 75 percent of students stated that the cost of books and supplies are the main barrier to achieving their educational goals. The university also found that 70 percent of students said that the cost of textbooks and supplies influenced their enrollment options and 67 percent of students said they were concerned that their grades would suffer if they did not buy books. of text.

The Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER) maintains a file of TEA case studies in North America and an index of previous webinars"