Horner Transcript 1

From OER Commons Wiki

Interview with FHSST founder Mark Horner

Movie 1

What's an open textbook?

For me an open textbook is just a textbook that's released under a license that allows you to modify and copy it without any constraints. What’s different about open textbooks?

Ideally I think that you'd like free and open textbooks to be at first glance the same as the other textbooks. They shouldn't feel too different from using publishers' textbooks. But we've specifically tried to include a lot of step by step worked examples which we think catered to the needs of the learners, especially weaker learners. But then if teachers want to work on the book or make an exercise sheet using material that's in the textbook or a subset of the notes or a summary, they can take that material, edit it themselves, and distribute it.

So we think that for basic usage, it’s the same as having a textbook from the publisher, the quality and curriculum language should all be the same. But there's greater flexibility for the teacher to adapt and do more dynamic things with the material then when you use a publisher's textbook that's under a closed license.