Miami University a member of national open textbook Publishing Cooperative

OTN logoMiami University is one of nine higher education institutions piloting a program to publish new, openly licensed textbooks.

The program, called The Publishing Cooperative, was launched by the Open Textbook Network (OTN) to grow open textbook publishing expertise in higher education institutions, and increase the availability of free, open textbooks for use by instructors and students across the world.

Founding members of the OTN Publishing Cooperative include, Miami University, Penn State University, Portland State University, Southern Utah University, University of Cincinnati, University of Connecticut, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Virginia Tech and West Hills Community College District (CA).

"As the rising costs of textbooks and scholarly publishing increasingly become part of the discussion around college affordability, open educational resources offer real possibilities for creating access to free, open textbooks that meet the needs of faculty and students," said Carla Myers, coordinator of scholarly communications for Miami. "Supported by the University Libraries and Provost's office, Miami is fortunate to have faculty who are already demonstrating leadership in exploring these possibilities."

The cooperative will establish publishing infrastructure, processes and community to expand the development of open textbook publishing in higher education. The Publishing Cooperative will publish two dozen new textbooks with a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license by 2020.

"The partnership with OTN and its reputation for leadership in this area are a natural alignment that positions Miami and its faculty to contribute to this emerging field and create and share more open textbooks with our campus community and the world," Myers added.

About the Open Textbook Network – The Open Textbook Network is a community working to improve education through open education, with members representing over 600 higher education institutions. OTN institutions have saved students more than $8.5 million by implementing open education programs, and empowered faculty with the flexibility to customize course content to meet students’ learning needs.