Public Group active 3 months, 3 weeks ago

Open Educational Resources at LaGuardia

A (informal) working group for people interested in discussing and exploring OER pedagogy.

Admins:

OpenAccess For-Cost Products

  • Dear Group:

    Okay, I’m confused.

    Through my work with OpenStax I started receiving e-mail solicitations for homework management products that charge a student fee.

    I cannot figure out how this corresponds to an Open Access philosophy. It is certainly not in the zero-cost framework that I am trying to implement, but I”m concerned that there is some funny business going on in the OpenStax community where they are providing free and open textbooks but are farming out contact lists to Tech Companies looking to disrupt the textbook market. Don’t get me wrong, I wish them well, but I’m not going to be their customer unless they give stuff to my students for no cost to them.

    Has anyone else in this group encountered/ thought about this? I’d like to have a conversation with some who are perhaps more connected to the OER communities than I.

    Hope summer is treating everyone well!

    Josh

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  • Hi Josh,

    I haven’t had that experience to the best of my knowledge. But I do delete solicitous-looking email without reading them. It’s worth investigating. I’ll see what I can find out. It would be a shame if OpenStax sells their contacts to commercial vendors.

    Are you on the CCCOER list? It’s a community college OER listserv and I imagine someone would know. OpenStax people post regularly!

    Hope all is well,

    Ian

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