Dispelling Myths about Open Textbooks

Session Title: Dispelling Myths about Open Textbooks

Presenter: Barbara Illowsky, Professor, Mathematics & Statistics , De Anza College
Jacky Hood, Project Director, Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources, Foothill-De Anza Community College District

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Time & Date: 10:15 A.M. - 11:00 A.M., Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Location: Rm. C150

Session Description: Myths abound about open textbooks. Based on experience and research of the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources and the Community College Open Textbook Project, this session offers counterexamples and paths to improvement.

Myths include

• Authors never receive monetary compensation for open textbooks.
• Campus bookstores suffer from the use of open textbooks.
• Publishing companies are the enemies of open textbooks.
• All open textbooks are “crowd-sourced”, i.e., created by anonymous amateurs.
• Modifications to textbooks damage the authors? credibility.
• Open textbooks are low quality or out-of-date with expired copyrights.

The first three myths are related to business models and the last three to quality. Abolishing these myths requires multiple viable business models for open textbooks:

1. Free textbooks; modest support pricing. Similar to commercial support for open source software, this model provides free textbooks subsidized by revenues from ancillary products and services including study aids, online tutoring, on-demand printing, and more.
2. High volume, low price. Following closely the work by C.K. Prahalad of the University of Michigan (The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, 2006), this model demonstrates that prices as low as a few pennies can create more revenue and profit than higher prices for lower volumes.
3. Advertising. High quality newspapers, magazines, radio and television programs are often supported by advertising. Based on the experience of the Technical Support Management Certificate program at San Jose State University, corporations will support a program to encourage education in a field from which they seek employees or to which they sell products.
4. Grant Funding. Foundations have supported the production and purchase of copyrights for open resources. The benefits to society are easy to demonstrate.
5. Donations by authors and publishers.

The general myth that gives rise to all five myths is that Business Model 5 is the only possible model for open textbooks. The assumption is that authors and publishers only donate substandard works.

Even Business Model 5 can result in high-quality up-to-date open textbooks because authors derive many advantages from publishing with an open copyright. Their writing is disseminated widely and their standing grows substantially. Many open textbooks are proudly created by one or a few authors. They are not crowd-sourced in the low quality fashion of some online resources. Typically, the original authors maintain quality control of the original textbook. Peer use and review of their books provide free quality assurance. Modified versions do not detract from the original textbook; they increase its use and understanding.

While campus bookstores receive high revenues for textbooks, the profits are low compared to other products. With fewer textbooks, the stores have space and personnel time available for other books as well as music, computers, software, sporting goods, college-logo merchandise, and more. Floor space for textbooks can also be replaced by computers for viewing open textbooks and ordering immediate prints or bound copies. These computers can also be used to sell travel services and other products.