“Un-marketing” our open textbooks | BCcampus

"Making open textbooks available to the B.C. Higher education system is our mandate – but getting educators to use them is the other side of the project. That’s why we have created a toolkit for use by Teaching and Learning Centres, librarians, instructors, and anyone who wants to advocate for the adoption of open textbooks in higher education.  While it’s true we can provide a variety of textbooks and other open educational resources for use by anyone, if no one uses them, what good are they? So, along with our efforts to find, adapt, and create open textbooks, we also need to spend time and effort making instructors aware of their existence, and encourage them to adopt and assign to their students.  We are working hard to make sure the quality of our product matches that of the proprietary texts provided by big publishers. What we can’t match, though, is their marketing budget. We have no army of salespeople with expense accounts, no advertising dollars, no entertainment funds or sponsorship budget. We can’t spring for lunch for an articulation committee or provide limousine service to attend conferences.  But we can go beyond traditional marketing efforts: we can foster an authentic community. We can offer the support, workshops, and resources needed to spread OER further into the higher education system. We can share our knowledge and create a space for our partners to share their experiences.  So please share our toolkit widely. Print the brochure and the posters and use them in meetings or at conferences. Remix and adapt them for your use (they’re CC-licensed). Above all, make sure you keep in touch with us and let us know about your experience using open textbooks  ..."