UC Irvine OpenCourseWare Offers Open Textbook Forum, Jan 26 Free Event & Live Webcast Explores New Opportunities in Textbook Authoring and Adoptions

IRVINE, CA, January 27, 2011 (Press-News.org) The OpenCourseWare program at the University of California, Irvine is offering an "Open Textbook Forum" in an effort to introduce university faculty and administration to new trends and options available in textbook authoring and adoptions. This first ever event at the UCI Anteater Instruction & Research Building (room AIRB-1030) will also be available simultaneously via a live webcast on Wednesday, Jan. 26 from 4-5 p.m. The on-campus event will feature a keynote presentation and panel discussion from top educators and industry experts.

"The concept of open textbooks, in which textbooks are openly-licensed and offered online by their authors, is an ever-changing paradigm," said Gary W. Matkin, Ph.D., dean of continuing education at UC Irvine. "This event will provide higher education professionals the opportunity to see how this concept works and what the benefits are to joining the movement."
Attendees of the event will gain further knowledge about low- and no-cost textbook solutions for students as well as more information on financial incentives for textbook authoring. Participants will also learn new strategies for evaluation and deployment of open textbooks in the classroom. Key industry experts will be on hand to share how the university can benefit from the new opportunities.

Speakers presenting at the Open Textbook Forum will include:
• Gary W. Matkin, Ph.D., dean of continuing education, distance learning and summer session for UC Irvine: As moderator of the panel and open education visionary, Matkin will offer insight on how open textbooks support the open education resource movement.
• Eric Frank: Founder and president of Flat World Knowledge, the largest publisher of free and open college textbooks for students worldwide, will explain how the open textbook model significantly lowers cost for students, provides educators with greater control over content, and offers academic authors greater income potential in the long-term.
• Stephen Carson: As the President of the OpenCourseWare Consortium board and Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) OpenCourseWare external director, Carson explains how this trend has impacted OpenCourseWare and students at MIT.
• Michael Dennin: Respected UC Irvine professor, Physics and Astronomy Chair, Council on Educational Policy, UCI Academic Senate, will explore the issue of open textbooks from a faculty perspective.

The event is sponsored by the UCI Office of Information Technology, the UCI Teaching Learning & Technology Center, and David G. Kay, UCI Vice Chair, Department of Informatics, Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences. Free and open to the public, this event will be hosted at the UCI Anteater Instruction & Research Building in Room AIRB-1030 or via webcast.
To R.S.V.P. or for more information, visit http://ocw.uci.edu/info/event.aspx.

ABOUT UC IRVINE'S OPENCOURSEWARE INITIATIVE: The University of California, Irvine was the first University of California campus—and West Coast University—to join the OCW Consortium. UC Irvine's membership in the OCW Consortium is consistent with its public- and land-grant missions and its desire to play a significant role in contributing to the social welfare of the state, the nation and the world. Open educational resources (OER) showcase the University's high quality education and makes courses and course materials free for everyone in the world. UC Irvine's OCW is a large-scale, Web-based resource that houses educational assets that are discoverable, searchable, modifiable, and, best of all, free and easily available. Through the OCW movement, UC Irvine provides University-quality courses and learning assets to populations of self-learners that are underserved and in many cases, unable to participate in formal education at a university. This site also offers access to UC Irvine's online continuing education offerings. For more information about UC Irvine's OCW initiative, visit http://ocw.uci.edu/ or e-mail ocw@unx.uci.edu.

About the University of California, Irvine: The University of California, Irvine is a top-ranked university dedicated to research, scholarship and community service. Founded in 1965, UCI is among the fastest-growing University of California campuses, with more than 27,000 undergraduate and graduate students and about 1,400 faculty members. The second-largest employer in dynamic Orange County, UCI contributes an annual economic impact of $3.3 billion. For more UCI news, visit http://www.today.uci.edu.