Nineteen business majors are trying to sell the idea of free online textbooks to their professors in an internship program that pushes open-content technology designed to counter escalating book costs.
The internships, introduced this year by open textbook provider Flat World Knowledge, let sophomore and junior business students earn college credit and a little spending cash if their sales pitch convinces a professor to use web-based texts that can be reorganized and modified by chapter, sentence, or word.
Students from schools that include New York University, the University of Florida, and the College of Charleston are being tutored via webinars by Flat World Knowledge sales pros and authors of textbooks that are sold on the Flat World web site.
The company has grown in the past year as the open-content movement has gained traction in higher education, buttressed by the Creative Commons license—which doesn’t require permission from authors to change parts of a book—and the rising cost of textbooks.
College students pay more than $900 annually for textbooks, according to national surveys released in 2008 and 2009.
More than 40,000 students at 400 colleges used Flat World textbooks in the fall 2009 semester, according to the company. That’s up significantly from about 1,000 students on 30 campuses who used Flat World material last spring. Students can order traditional bound textbooks for a minimal cost, usually around $25, according to the Flat World site.
Company officials said real-world training from seasoned salespeople would benefit the interns academically, and learning about open content and its growing role on university campuses would help spread the word to faculty looking to save their students money every semester. Flat World interns can earn money through sales made to professors…
Read the full story on eCampus News.
- Lawmakers to colleges: No more social media prying - April 25, 2013
- Number of college applications affected by social media triples - October 9, 2012
- Gates Foundation supports college readiness apps - September 28, 2012
