Open textbooks are textbooks that are free to use, adapt, modify, and repurpose. Importantly, they are free to students. In BC alone, open textbooks have saved students over 20 million in textbook costs. There are several well recognized open textbook collections of great quality.
Many of the textbooks in these collections have been peer reviewed, so they are considered to be of good quality.
For this challenge you will explore the BCcampus open textbook collection and see if there is an open textbook that is relevant to your area of teaching. There are currently 326 peer reviewed open textbooks and guides in the collection, and the number is continually growing.
Examples
- Environmental Science: A Canadian Perspective – contains interactive exercises if using the digital version
- Canadian History Pre-Confederation – contains glossaries, key terms, exercises
- Introduction to Sociology – includes section review quizzes
- Pulling Together: Foundations Guide – part of a series of guides to support systemic change in BC higher ed in the areas of Indigenization, decolonization, and reconciliation. It contains activities and knowledge checks and accessibility features.
Challenge
- Go to the BCcampus open textbook collection and find a textbook that is relevant to something that you teach. If you aren’t currently teaching, choose one that you are generally interested in.
- Share the link to the textbook you found in the comment section.