Great thinking Dianne, thanks for this. We are beginning to formulate research questions at BCcampus as are others in the field. Do you have anything in particular in mind with respect to a research agenda you think would be particularly valuable for the sustainability process?
I'm really interested in your comment about data mining. Can you tell me a bit more about that? Are you referring to analytics of the ways in which the texts are used by students?
Initially, the asgenda for a conference would be simply to share experiences that reviewers and developers have had, as well as discuss the history of the movement and the uptake of the projetcs.
In addtion, it would be a great way for educators to share their digital support materials as they develop their ideas.
I should think that from there it will deevlop naturally as people explore the field and perhaps move away fromn the "taditional" textbook formula into presentations of material more conducive to the digital world.
In terms of my data mining comment, you are right, I am taking about the analysis of how people use the texts, validation of support material etc....
You are giving me some great ideas for the next Open Textbook Summit Dianne. Last spring and a couple weeks ago at the Open Ed conference in Utah we just had people who are actively working on open textbook initiatives on the project team side. If we expanded it to include faculty adopting and adapting and students who have been assigned open textbooks, that would be very informative for the project teams. It would also give developers the opportunity to share experiences and resources with each other.
