Creation of reusable open textbooks: Insights from the Connexions repository

• Published in: British journal of educational technology Vol. 46; no. 6; pp. 1223 - 1235
• Main Authors: Rodriguez-Solano, Carlos, Sánchez-Alonso, Salvador, Sicilia, Miguel-Angel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Coventry Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.11.2015; Wiley-Blackwell
• Subjects: Archives; Audience Awareness; Copyrights; Cultural Differences; Educational Resources; Educational technology; Electronic Publishing; Global Approach; Institutional Characteristics; Internet; Shared Resources and Services; Statistical Analysis; Sustainability; Textbooks; Usability; Use Studies
• ISSN: 0007-1013; 1467-8535
• DOI: 10.1111/bjet.12196

Open textbook initiatives have appeared as an alternative to traditional publishing. These initiatives for the production of alternatively copyrighted educational resources provide a way of sharing materials through the Web. While the open model of peer‐produced materials enables the global reuse of textbooks, the combination of fragments to produce new textbooks tailored to particular needs is not easy. The heterogeneity of topics and target audiences, as well as the cultural and institutional differences of educational systems across the globe, raises the need for new compositional features, fostering—at the same time—the reuse of the newly produced combinations. This paper reviews the current models of reuse and sharing, and presents a quantitative analysis of the Connexions repository which provides evidence about the culture of reuse in open textbook initiatives.