OER Spotlight: Free High School Science Texts (FHSST)

== ISKME interviews FHSST Founder Mark Horner ==

In December 2007, the founder of South Africa's Free High School Science Texts (FHSST) project visited ISMKE's offices to talk about the origins of his project, and what is involved with creating open educational resource projects.

You can view the entire transcript [[Horner transcript full | here]], or focus on the specific questions and responses below, offered as text and videos:


{| border="1" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0"
!Question
!Transcript- text
!link to  blip.tv
!link to YouTube
|-
|1. What is an open textbook? What's different about them?
|[[Horner Transcript 1|transcript]]
|[http://blip.tv/file/965846 video on blip.tv]
|[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKtey7fhRuo video on YouTube]
|-
|2. What inspired you to start a grassroots project (FHSST)? What happened next? How did you know there was a bigger need?
|[[Horner Transcript 2|transcript]]
|[http://blip.tv/file/965960 video on blip.tv]
| [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKtey7fhRuo video on YouTube]
|-
|3. What is the opportunity for open textbooks? Do open texts cost less? What does the bottom line look like?
|[[Horner Transcript 3|transcript]] 
| [http://blip.tv/file/966039 video on blip.tv] 
| [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GJjnmx53_g video on YouTube]
|-
|4. How did you build credibility for a grassroots open textbook project? How are the textbooks collaboratively created?
|[[Horner Transcript 4|transcript]] 
| [http://blip.tv/file/966093 video on blip.tv]
| [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0CZg1zHtFg video on YouTube]
|-
|5. What uniques student needs did the FHSST textbooks address?
|[[Horner Transcript 5|transcript]] 
| [http://blip.tv/file/966193 video on blip.tv]
| [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUa7VbTK5FU video on YouTube]
|-
|6. How did you find and recruit volunteers to create open textbooks? How did you cope with the many volunteers with so few administrators? DId volunteers work together? What is a hackathon?
|[[Horner Transcript 6|transcript]] 
| [http://blip.tv/file/966359 video on blip.tv] 
|[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TynzKiQSkXg video on YouTube]
|-
|7. What are the barriers to volunteer productivity?
|[[Horner Transcript 7|transcript]] 
| [http://blip.tv/file/966428 video on blip.tv]
| [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USNVvUPKCWw video on YouTube]
|-
|8. What helps to keep volunteers motivated? Where there other ways you tried to motivate volunteers?
|[[Horner Transcript 8|transcript]] 
| [http://blip.tv/file/970146 video on blip.tv]
| [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwlr6oTaq8g video on YouTube]
|-
|9. What does it feel like to author and then give up control of the work? Do your contributions to an open, adaptable work live on?
|[[Horner Transcript 9|transcript]] 
| [http://blip.tv/file/970031 video on blip.tv]
| [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAZy2e6PCDM video on YouTube]
|-
|10. What is important to know when starting an open educational resource (OER) project now? Any other advice for people who are starting OERs?
|[[Horner Transcript 10|transcript]] 
| [http://blip.tv/file/970237 video on blip.tv]
| [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRv1CoeXHW0 video on YouTube]
|-
|11. Are open textbooks ever complete?
|[[Horner Transcript 11|transcript]] 
| [http://blip.tv/file/970311 video on blip.tv]
| [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7ldmrX6pQU video on YouTube]
|}


== External Links ==