Open Textbook Initiative

I'm trying to get people interested in developing a model for an open, digital, printable, free textbook, that anyone could access online, download, in full or in part, share, or print if necessary.

The general idea is to create dematerialized textbooks, organized in modules: an officially approved minimum basis, and additional optional modules. Redundancy would be allowed for easy adaptation to local needs. Learning and teaching communities could also make contributions.

Bundles could then be customized or made available in presets. Schools could have their own official bundles, and students could get them in print in libraries, online, and the digital versions would, of course, have open formats.

The best example is that of a Math textbook, that allows for direct translation, and which main contents never get old.

So, for example, LaTeX modules would be made available online, and compiled into one document as needed. Indexes would, of course, need to me made universal in some way. And bundles would get their own UID, for easy sharing.

Today, the available digital textbooks are heavily copyrighted walled gardens, and their licenses expire after some time, so they're broken by design. But their contents are, for the most part, already Commons. So what gives?

When I started writing this comment, I had in mind that the Portuguese Ministry of Education had spent around 40 M€ buying textbooks from large publishers that are distributed for free to students in need, in a voucher system. While checking this, I found recent news reporting that this value, in the Portuguese national budget for 2019, had underestimated the cost by 100 M€ (and that year's budget had a surplus of 0,2% of the GDP...). I expect that an annual sum this large would be more than enough to fund a long term project.

Most important: if lots of students give the same wrong answer, the instructor's explanation was probably misleading (or even wrong).

> "Common Core approved"

This does not exist, so you have no problem with Common Core. Common Core is an open standard, not a certification. Any book can be Common Core aligned, and any school board can choose to certify a book within their jurisdiction.

Common Core is a standard (checklist of abilities students should learn), not a curriculum.

Ilustrated Mathematics ( https://illustrativemathematics.org/math-curriculum/ ) is a curriculum, which is Common Core aligned, that fills in details of the standard. IM certified partners who each publish books. (Both open and proprietary partners exist) This is closest to the accredidation you mention.

Yes, accreditation is an expense. That expense can be paid by donations, grants, or government payments.

There are currently 3 textbook publishing partners of Illustrated Mathematics.

https://openupresources.org/frequently-asked-questions/open-...

Cengage and McGraw-Hill are major textbook publishers, who are not Pearson.

Illustrative Mathematics's publishing partners are also not Pearson.

Illustrative Mathematics (used in various school districts) is based on Open Up Resources, a Creative Commons -licensed curriculum https://openupresources.org/math-curriculum/ that includes teacher/home/student lesson plans (not exactly a text book, but K-12 school curriculum is designed to be led by a teacher, not self-studied.)