To accelerate scientific progress by advancing the spread of open access and free and open source software and hardware in academia, this study surveyed university professors in Canada to determine their willingness accept "open source (OS) endowed chair professorships." To obtain such an "open source endowed chair," in…

Based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the aims of the present cross-sectional study were i) to investigate acceptance by teachers of an open-source, collaborative, free m-learning app, named "Artefac," ii) to examine whether teachers' self-approach goals (i.e., the motivation to teach more effectively than before) may be a…

This study aims to understand how a developing country higher education institution (HEI) attempted to digitalise teaching. The Internet has disrupted the traditional teaching environment and teaching practices leading to the migration from physical face-to-face teaching to online teaching changing the work environment of the teacher. Information…

Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) have gained more prominence in education of late; however, the question of their theoretically sound implementation remains relatively understudied. The current article addresses this gap through the explanation of how a MUVE platform Second Life was used in an undergraduate course for pre-service teachers.…

This paper offers insight from an informal cross-cultural mentoring experience of course development in higher education framed by the UNESCO Chair on Open Technologies for Open Educational Resources and Open Learning project. The Open Education for a Better World is a tuition-free international online mentoring program established to unlock the…

Open educational resources (OER) are educational materials with an open license so that they can be freely copied, modified, and reused. While the rising cost of textbooks is a concern in higher education, over 50% of the surveyed educators stated that they are unaware of the OER and how they could replace the traditional textbooks. In addition,…

Textbook prices have soared over the years, with several studies revealing many university students are finding it difficult to afford textbooks. Fortunately, two innovations--open educational resources (OER) and open textbooks--hold the potential to increase textbook affordability. Experts, though, have stated the obvious: that students can save…

Providing financial incentives to faculty who adopt free educational resources in place of traditional textbooks is becoming more common in U.S. higher education institutions. The University of Mississippi (UM) offered liberal arts instructors the opportunity to apply for internal funding to replace one traditional textbook in their classroom with…

Textbooks are a vital component in many higher education contexts. Increasing textbook prices, coupled with general rising costs of higher education have led some instructors to experiment with substituting open educational resources (OER) for commercial textbooks as their primary class curriculum. This article synthesizes the results of 16…

The Kansas State University Open/Alternative Textbook Initiative provides grants to faculty members to replace textbooks with open/alternative educational resources (OAERs) that are available at no cost to students. Open educational resources are available for anyone to access, while alternative educational resources are not open. The objective of…

Educational resources in the competitive world of higher education were often considered as key intellectual property, so access to those resources was restricted to privileged groups of students and professors, which is unacceptable in today's networked society. Today, an increasing number of institutions and individuals share such digital…

This paper documents four years of a novel approach to teaching a two-course sequence in software engineering as part of the ABET-accredited computer science curriculum at the College of Charleston. This approach is team-based and centers on learning software engineering in the context of open source software projects. In the first course, teams…

Recent shifts in web map technology away from proprietary software and toward development on the Open Web Platform have increased the number and complexity of technical skills needed to do cartography on the Web. Web-based cartography curricula likewise must be adapted to prepare geography, cartography, and GIS students with the skills needed to…

Aaron Knochel, Assistant Professor of Art Education at The Pennsylvania State University in University Park, introduced his preservice art education students to a growing field of design practice that focused on developing open source, affordable prosthetics to kids that could otherwise not afford them. Many of these projects involve three…

The high cost of tuition and textbooks can have a negative impact on potential students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Open Educational Resources (OER) offers students a way to save educational costs while utilizing high-quality open textbooks. Up until now, there have been few studies focused on a specific provider of open textbooks. This…