My Indiana University (IU) colleagues, Dr. Brad Wheeler and Dr. Stacy Morrone, held a timely and brilliant Webinar on Tuesday afternoon April 24 with Pearson and the Chronicle of HE on the eTextbook initiative at IU. (If interested, Click
here to sign in and access the recording).
During the event, they announced and launched a free open access book from Creative Commons on the topic from IU: “eTexts 101: A Practical Guide.” Want a copy? Just go here to Download or read online. If interested, below is the Table of Contents (TOC). Have a look.
Brad Wheeler just noted to me that with the launching of this book, IU has "opened the door and put the model [that IU is using] in place as another option" for IU faculty to have "another option for their course materials, and they are choosing it with greater frequency." Perhaps other institutions will follow it as well or tweak it for their own purposes. As a new and emerging area, there is much need for such models in the eTextbook field. People need to understand what is required to undertake such an initiative, what is possible with book publishers, how to negotiate contracts, the potential benefits, the road ahead (i.e., the timeline or multiple timelines), and so on.
Here at IU, it is a proven success story. As shown below, there are 9 times as many eText adoptions in terms of course sections and 7-8 times as many student users of eTexts at IU now then there was just 5 short years ago. Faculty members are also jumping on board with 6-7 times as many unique faculty in 2017 compared to 2012. Wow...that is some growth.
The savings are
literally amazing! See below for a depiction of the cost savings for IU students from 2012-2017.
Oh...how about a quick snapshot on eTexts at IU for 2017-2018. Brad Wheeler just sent me the image below to share. It is very telling. As he notes, IU faculty have driven this overwhelmingly positive response. IU faculty have been quite progressive when it comes to adapting technology for their instruction for a long time. When I got here in August of 1992, there were many interesting learning technology-related initiatives taking place.
Write me an email if
you want a PDF of their talk slides or the book (or see the link above).
As shown by the data above, IU
continues to lead the academic technology world. Last week Wednesday April 18th may have been IU Day. But when it comes to eTexts, every day is IU day! Go IU!
Labels: eText adoptions, eText experiences, eText savings, eTextbooks, eTexts 101: A Practical Guide, Indiana University, Open educational resources, textbook adoptions |
