The world's first open textbooks released in the same month but on different continents
Poland and Canada release the first open textbooks under Creative Commons licenses.
Canada's peer-reviewed open textbooks now online
In 2012, British Columbia Ministry of Advanced Education (Canada) announced plans to create open textbook for the 40 most popular (highest enrolment) courses in first and second year of the post-secondary education system.
The first textbooks are now available online. They can be downloaded for free in epub and mobi formats. Learners can also purchase a print copy for a low cost. The textbooks are published under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license, meaning that they can be modified and republished non-commercially, as long as they are properly attributed and licensed under identical terms.
Mary Burgess, Director of Curriculum Services and Applied Research at BCcampus, commented:
“I think open textbooks are going to change the world. Fundamentally the reason why we are doing this project is to increase access to higher education by lowering costs.”
Poland leading the way in Europe
Nine time zones away, Poland has been tracing a similar path. In April 2012 the Polish Council of Ministers committed 43 million PLN to develop open textbooks for grades 4 to 6 in primary schools.
“We hope the program will open not only discussion about the role and importance of open educational resources in schools, but will also widespread its use in schools,” said Kamil Śliwowski, education lead of Creative Commons Poland. “Free and open textbooks are what parents and teachers demanded for years, now we will be able to observe how they will work in practice.”
In April 2014, the Polish Ministry of Education released an open primer textbook, “Elementarz,” for the first grade of elementary school. The textbook is licensed under a Creative Commons BY license, meaning that it can be remixed, repurposed, and redistributed for any purpose as long as it is properly attributed.
The complete set of core curriculum textbooks for K-12 are still being developed under the Digital School program.