The Open Textbook: From Modules to Mash-Ups

Abstract

A growing movement by students, parents, and professors protesting at the high price of traditional textbooks in higher education, and denouncing the weight of textbooks in K-12, has given impetus to an increase in digital text-books. Scholars, publishers, institutions, and policymakers are struggling with trade-offs, real or perceived, which exist between open access and publisher-controlled content, as well as between fair use and the protections offered by copyright. Open source textbooks—many employing Creative Commons licenses that allow others to share and build on the work of content creators, consistent with the rules of copyright (see creativecommons.org)—are a growing trend making an impact on higher education, and to a lesser extent, thus far, on K-12 education.