How Can A Textbook Be Free?
NEWS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATE: 8-25-10
CONTACT: LESLIE SCHALER, Communication Program Coordinator, lschaler@library.umass.edu, 413-545-0162
UMASS AMHERST LIBRARIES HOSTS
“How Can A Textbook Be Free?
Keeping Higher Education Affordable With Open Resources”
Amherst – The UMass Amherst Libraries will host a panel discussion on Open Educational Resources, “How Can a Textbook Be Free? Keeping Higher Education Affordable with Open Resources,” on Tuesday, September 21, 2010, from 1:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., in Room 163C of the Campus Center, at UMass Amherst. The panel will include Stephen Carson from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Eric Frank ’92 and Michael Boezi from Flat World Knowledge.
Stephen Carson is the external relations director for MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW), a web-based publication of virtually all Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) course content. OCW is open and available to all. Carson is also the president of the OpenCourseWare Consortium, a worldwide community of hundreds of universities and associated organizations committed to advancing OpenCourseWare and its impact on global education.
Eric Frank (UMass Amherst Class of 1992) is founder and president of Flat World Knowledge, which publishes free and openly licensed college textbooks. Frank brings over 14 years of experience in higher education publishing. He has held positions in sales, editing, and marketing at Thomson (now Cengage) and Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. Prior to starting Flat World, Frank was director of marketing for Prentice Hall Business Publishing.
Michael Boezi is the editorial director of Flat World Knowledge. Boezi has 14 years of experience publishing and marketing college textbooks. Previously, he was executive editor at Pearson Education, editor at John Wiley & Sons, and marketing manager at Addison-Wesley.
Flat World Knowledge has raised over $11.5 million in private investment capital in the past two years, and has grown to over 40,000 users in just one academic season.
Open Educational Resources (OER) are educational materials and resources available for anyone to use at no cost. Examples of OER include textbooks, journals, course materials, and software to support learning. For more information on OER, go to: http://guides.library.umass.edu/oer.
The panel discussion is sponsored by the Division of Student Affairs and Campus Life, the Office of Faculty Development, and the UMass Amherst Libraries.
For more information on this event contact Marilyn Billings (413-545-6891, mbillings@library.umass.edu), Madeleine Charney (413-577-0784, mcharney@library.umass.edu), or Sarah Hutton (413-545-6740, shutton@library.umass.edu). RSVP on Facebook
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Last Edited: 7 September 2010
