The rapid development of open-source online platforms has not only altered the traditional idea of access to high quality education but also left the traditional college textbook industry facing a real challenge given that its competitors provide comparable material free of charge.
This year the 2011 WISE Awards Winner Connexions launched OpenStax College, a program that seeks to improve student access to quality learning materials by providing free e-textbooks for five of the most-attended college courses in the US. Eventually, the books will be available in translations to broaden their impact worldwide.
Developed at Rice University and backed by the Hewlett Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the 20 Million Minds Foundation, and the Maxfield Foundation, OpenStax College will publish its first two books – College Physics and Introduction to Sociology – in March. The books will be available for free via computers, tablets, and smartphones. A print-on-demand feature will make it possible for students and colleges to order low-cost print copies.
OpenStax textbooks are developed and peer-reviewed by educators to ensure they are readable, accurate, and meet the scope and sequence requirements of the course in question. The organizers believe the programs could save students $90 million in the next five years if the books capture 10% of the American market.
Access and find out more about OpenStax College here.
Richard Baraniuk is the Victor E. Cameron Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice University and the Founder and Director of Connexions (cnx.org). Launched in 1999, Connexions was one of the world’s first - and today is one of the world’s largest - “open education” projects, inviting universal participation in the creation of, and free access to, knowledge. Each month, Connexions provides free and remixable educational materials and e-textbooks to a community of over two million users from 200 countries.
For his research projects in sensors, signal processing, and “big data” Professor Baraniuk has received national research awards from the US NSF and ONR, the Rosenbaum Fellowship from the Isaac Newton Institute of Cambridge University, the ECE Young Alumni Achievement Award from the University of Illinois, the SPIE Wavelet Pioneer Award, the SPIE Compressive Sampling Pioneer Award, an MIT Technology Review TR10 Top 10 Emerging Technology Award, and several best paper awards. He is co-inventor of the “single-pixel camera” that has been widely reported in the popular press and is being commercialized by InVIEW Technologies.
For his education projects, Professor Baraniuk has received the Eta Kappa Nu C. Holmes MacDonald National Outstanding Teaching Award, the Tech Museum Laureate Award, the Internet Pioneer Award from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, the World Technology Network Education Award, and the IEEE Signal Processing Society Education Award. He has been selected as one of Edutopia Magazine's Daring Dozen Education Innovators, spoken at the TED conference, and elected a Fellow of IEEE and a Fellow of AAAS.
This blog is host to the representatives of the WISE Awards winning projects. From social entrepreneurs to providers of free learning materials on the Internet, all are pushing forward the frontiers of 21st-century education.
