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Dear Ralph, May I forward your email off-list to some geology faculty I know? Best, Morag At 12:22 PM 2010-11-15, you wrote: >Care to contribute to an open educational resource for introducing >college students to physical geology? In other words, help write and >edit a free and open online textbook for Geology 101? > >You have probably heard about open educational resources. Besides >being easily found on the Web, the key criteria for an open >educational resource (OER) are that it: >1. Is free of charge. >2. Is copyrighted for free use (or free with attribution), >including use in altered, edited, and excerpted forms. >3. Requires no login, registration, or user information to be accessed. > >If enough of us get together and create an open Geology 101 textbook >online, we can leverage (1) each other's experience in teaching >introductory geology, (2) each other's content knowledge from our >earth science research backgrounds, and (3) each other's pedagogical >knowledge from up-to-date educational research, in order to >group-source, as they say, a high-quality digital textbook. > >Once it is available to the world at large, we can keep improving >the digital textbook with future edits and revisions as it gets >perused, used, and commented upon. > >The next common questions might be: What's in it for me? Don't >people write textbooks, which can take years of effort, at least >partly for a profit motive? Yes, there is a lot to be said for >traditional textbooks, including letting the publishers provide >editing, image-making artwork, publicity, printing, and shipping; >letting the academic marketplace filter textbooks by purchasing more >of those with the desired qualities; and in the end rewarding those >who write good-quality textbooks and get them published. > >However, in spite of the questions we may raise about the >nebulous-seeming enterprise of open educational resources, and the >benefits of traditional for-profit textbooks, OER textbooks are >going to happen. In my view, the best way for an open, online, >digital textbook for Geology 101 to happen is for those of us who >care most about having students be introduced to geology properly at >the college level be the ones who create it. > >That is why I am asking you to join me in this endeavor. At this >point, it is just an inquiry on my part. If several of you express >interest, we can go ahead and set up a wiki to work together, agree >on the editing controls, and go from there until the digital text >creation and editing site is up, online, and its contents being >composed by us, presumably sometime during 2011. There are no deadlines. > >By the way, if we spot some grant requests for proposals that the >Geology 101 OER textbook might be suitable for, we should consider >applying, as there will be some aspects of the work that a grant >could help us deal with more efficiently. But regardless of whether >we do this as a bootstrapped, from-the-grassroots, on-our-own-time >side project, or whether we find some support along the way, the two >key words are open and educational. In my view, only those who have >a sense of urgency about wanting to do this should step forward and >get involved in helping to make this happen. > >In the meantime, all inquiries and comments are welcome. Thank you. > >--Ralph > >Ralph Dawes, Ph.D. >Earth Sciences >Wenatchee Valley College >1300 Fifth Street >Wenatchee, WA 98801 >(509) 682-6754 >[log in to unmask] > Morag Coyne Acting Head, Engineering & Science Library Undergraduate Services Librarian Librarian for Biology, Geology, Geological Engineering & Environmental Studies Queen's University, Kingston, ON Phone: 613-533-6975 Email: [log in to unmask]