Virginia Releases First Open-Source Textbook

Posted 03/06/2009 at 1:15pm | by David Murphy

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Open-source software and hardware are common elements of the technological world.  And now the ancient counterparts to these modern products, written books, have finally jumped the gap into open waters as well.  Virginia's currently accepting public comments for its first-ever open-source school textbook, "21st Century Physics FlexBook: A Compilation of Contemporary and Emerging Technologies."

Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike, the project ran from concept to creation in a little under four months. That's an impressive amount of time for the creation of a full textbook.  Thirteen members from Virginia's K-12 physics community joined up with university and industry volunteers across a number of states to develop the book's eleven chapters.  And each chapter was given no less than three peer reviews from college professors, related authors, and high school and college students.

As for the "flexbook" part, Virginia officials define that as, "an adaptive, web–based set of instructional materials, is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike (CC–BY–SA) and thus can be used as is, used in part, or enhanced by teachers based on their curriculum and classroom needs."  In short, it's a book that's both Web- and print-based, which you can share-alike and modify so long as you include the original licensing. 

The advantages of this method are twofold: Not only does it encourage a faster production time versus the standard textbook model, but it allows the book's users to draft supplements and add-ons, as well as extract key areas and create additional texts using the material without needing to jump through a ton of copyright hoops.  For example, teachers could use the book as baseline, customizing the written contents to their exact methods and plans.  Or better, educators would no longer need to rely on a publishing house's lead time and could instead update the contents of the book themselves, perhaps even to the point where their contributions would be included in a scheduled revision.

The obvious extension of Virginia's project involves taking this concept to the collegiate level.  Just imagine: instead of undergraduates relying on expensive textbooks that are already outdated by the completion of their course, they could use open-source materials created by a conglomeration of professors across a wide range of universities.  While there would likely be additional time to factor in, given the greater complexity of an average college textbook versus a K-12 primer, open-source courseware would be a novel way to integrate a large sum of knowledge into an easily updatable format.  And it would be cheaper to produce and acquire than an average textbook.

The only question?  Who's going to get paid for the work?  Furthering the sum of human knowledge is an admirable goal, but putting food on the dinner table at the end of a long day is equally noteworthy.  If open-source coursework seeks to attract the attention and time of a greater body of intellectuals, how can these contributors--likely burdened with their own research and classes--be compensated for their contributions to a free project?  What kind of paid-for services could be tacked onto an open-source book?