The California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) was founded in 2000 by Sanford Forte, a former college textbook publishing executive. COSTP was a not-for-profit, collaborative, public/private undertaking originally created to address the high cost, content range, and consistent shortages of K-12textbooks in California. COSTP's mandate later expanded to include undergraduate and graduate university instructional materials, covering the entire K-20 range.
The planedit
COSTP's main goals were as follows:
Leveraging free, already-existing, and widely available educational content in the public domain
Better leveraging the substantial curriculum-based intellectual capital of California's best K-12 teachers
Better leveraging the substantial intellectual capital of American college and university instructors to enable open-licensed content for their institutions.
Using innovative copyright tools to secure new and dormant K-12 textbook content that would not otherwise be made available.
Substantially reducing the cost of textbooks for K-20 students and sponsoring institutions.
Complete elimination of the then-current US$400M+ line item for California's K-12 textbooks
Significant increase in the range of content afforded to California's K-12 textbooks
Permanent end to California's textbook shortages
Creation of fully portable content holdings database that scales with classroom technologies as they are introduced.
The cost of textbooks had risen steadily over the years preceding COSTP's founding. Critics contended that publishing companies artificially increased prices and essentially shut out competing efforts to liberate academic content from traditional copyright control. On COSTP's inception, the State of California was spending more than US$400M annually for K-12 textbooks, yet textbook shortages were not uncommon. Cost and access were becoming serious issues—projected to get worse as enrollments to K-12 institutions were projected to dramatically increase over the next decade.
COSTP employed the advantages of open-sourced content and innovative licensing tools in an effort to inspire significantly reduced K-12 textbook costs—with the hope of eventually turning K-12 curriculum and textbook construction from a cost into a revenue generator for the State of California. Open sourced, distributed content was intended to be made available gratis by deploying innovative copyright tools provided by organizations like Creative Commons, its partners, and other organizations. COSTP made important contributions to the many organizations that followed in its wake, as the "Open Educational Content" movement took hold over the next 10–15 years.
It is important to note that COSTP's mandate was not to replace printed textbooks, but simply make them less expensive to produce and distribute, thus creating many additional efficiencies in the K-12 academic content sector.
COSTP eventually graduated into a consulting role for many new entries to the Open Educational Resource (OER) sector, assisting many institutions with business modeling and analysis of textbook and online education markets, worldwide.
california, open, source, textbook, project, this, article, does, cite, sources, please, help, improve, this, article, adding, citations, reliable, sources, unsourced, material, challenged, removed, find, sources, news, newspapers, books, scholar, jstor, july,. This article does not cite any sources Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources California Open Source Textbook Project news newspapers books scholar JSTOR July 2022 Learn how and when to remove this template message The California Open Source Textbook Project COSTP was founded in 2000 by Sanford Forte a former college textbook publishing executive COSTP was a not for profit collaborative public private undertaking originally created to address the high cost content range and consistent shortages of K 12 textbooks in California COSTP s mandate later expanded to include undergraduate and graduate university instructional materials covering the entire K 20 range The plan editCOSTP s main goals were as follows Leveraging free already existing and widely available educational content in the public domain Better leveraging the substantial curriculum based intellectual capital of California s best K 12 teachers Better leveraging the substantial intellectual capital of American college and university instructors to enable open licensed content for their institutions Using innovative copyright tools to secure new and dormant K 12 textbook content that would not otherwise be made available Substantially reducing the cost of textbooks for K 20 students and sponsoring institutions Complete elimination of the then current US 400M line item for California s K 12 textbooks Significant increase in the range of content afforded to California s K 12 textbooks Permanent end to California s textbook shortages Creation of fully portable content holdings database that scales with classroom technologies as they are introduced The cost of textbooks had risen steadily over the years preceding COSTP s founding Critics contended that publishing companies artificially increased prices and essentially shut out competing efforts to liberate academic content from traditional copyright control On COSTP s inception the State of California was spending more than US 400M annually for K 12 textbooks yet textbook shortages were not uncommon Cost and access were becoming serious issues projected to get worse as enrollments to K 12 institutions were projected to dramatically increase over the next decade COSTP employed the advantages of open sourced content and innovative licensing tools in an effort to inspire significantly reduced K 12 textbook costs with the hope of eventually turning K 12 curriculum and textbook construction from a cost into a revenue generator for the State of California Open sourced distributed content was intended to be made available gratis by deploying innovative copyright tools provided by organizations like Creative Commons its partners and other organizations COSTP made important contributions to the many organizations that followed in its wake as the Open Educational Content movement took hold over the next 10 15 years It is important to note that COSTP s mandate was not to replace printed textbooks but simply make them less expensive to produce and distribute thus creating many additional efficiencies in the K 12 academic content sector COSTP eventually graduated into a consulting role for many new entries to the Open Educational Resource OER sector assisting many institutions with business modeling and analysis of textbook and online education markets worldwide See also editFree High School Science Texts South Africa Open educational resourcesExternal links editCalifornia Open Source Textbook Project website is closed here is a Wayback Machine snapshot Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title California Open Source Textbook Project amp oldid 1150889689, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
