Breaking the Higher Education Cost Spiral Through a Bold New Approach to Textbooks

Presenter(s)
Jeff Shelstad (Flat World Knowledge, US)
Session Information
July 26, 2012 - 11:10am
Track: 
Accessible Learning for All
Major Emphasis of Presentation: 
Applied Use (technology or pedagogy)
Institutional Level: 
Multiple
Audience Level: 
All
Session Type: 
Information Session
Location: 
Casanova 503
Session Duration: 
50 Minutes
4
Abstract

The battle for the future of textbooks: Open or proprietary? Device dependent or platform agnostic? Affordable or not? Hear what textbooks can, and should, be.

Files
Final Presentation: 
Extended Abstract
As publishing becomes digital, content is under pressure to be "free" as in "costs nothing" and "open" for people to interact with and modify. Old business models, however, often stand in the way. This session includes a case study on Flat World Knowledge, whose disruptive business model does the following: 1) Delivers cost savings to students; 2) Provides enhanced choices for students to access textbook content in the format that best suits their learning style, and 3) Gives faculty the flexibility to adapt textbook content to better suit their teaching style.
Lead Presenter

Jeff Shelstad is CEO of Flat World Knowledge, the largest publisher of free and open college textbooks for students worldwide. Flat World has raised $30 million in venture capital in the past two years, and its open textbooks have been formally adopted by over 2,000 faculty at 800 universities in 44 countries. The company has launched a classic disruptive model in the face of the $8 billion U.S. textbook publishing market. Outsell, an information industry analyst group, recently named Flat World one of "30 To Watch" in 2011 alongside Apple, Facebook, Google, Thomson-Reuters, and others.