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Full-Text Articles in Education
A Sustainable Future For Open Textbooks? The Flat World Knowledge Story, John Hilton Iii, David Wiley
A Sustainable Future For Open Textbooks? The Flat World Knowledge Story, John Hilton Iii, David Wiley
Faculty Publications
Many college students and their families are concerned about the high costs of textbooks. E–books have been proposed as one potential solution; open source textbooks have also been explored. A company called Flat World Knowledge produces and gives away open source textbooks in a way they believe to be financially sustainable. This article reports an initial study of the financial sustainability of the Flat World Knowledge open source textbook model.
A Sustainable Model For Opencourseware Development, Justin Johansen, David Wiley
A Sustainable Model For Opencourseware Development, Justin Johansen, David Wiley
Faculty Publications
The purposes of this study were to (a) determine the cost of converting BYU Independent Study’s e-learning courses into OpenCourseWare, (b) assess the impact of opening those courses on paid enrollment in the credit-bearing versions of the courses, and (c) use these data to judge whether or not an OpenCourseWare program could be financially self-sustaining over the long-term without grant monies or other subsidies. The findings strongly suggest that the BYU Independent Study model of publishing OpenCourseWare is financially self-sustaining, allowing the institution to provide a significant public good while generating new revenue and meeting its ongoing financial obligations.