Global Text
‘’’Global Text’’’ or the Global Text Project (‘’’GTP’’’) is an organisation dedicated to the creation and distribution of free open content textbooks, under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license targeted at students in developing countries. Global Text currently has over 100 textbooks on its website. While the initial objectiive of GTP was the creation of orginal works, the majority of the books on its website have been contributed by textbook authors who identify with the goals of GTP. The Global Text Project received funding in 2007 from the Jacobs Foundation of Switzerland to initiate the project.
‘’’Contents’’’
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• 1 Aims • 2 Concept • 3 Organization • 4 See also
Aims[edit] Textbooks are considered expensive in the US, but in many developing economies they are so expensive in relation to per capita incomes that they are out of reach for the majority of students. Thus, they are a hindrance to providing the sort of quality education that will help students lift themselves and their countries to the next level of development. The Global Text Project, led by Professors Don McCubbrey of the University of Denver and Rick Watson of the University of Georgia, has contributed to the solution of this problem with a model that created a free library of over 100 electronic texts on the Internet for university students in the developing world. Books can be tailored for the needs of individual countries. They can be continually updated by their creators and, importantly, by the community of academics and students that use them.
Concept[edit] While the Global Text continues its aim of providing a free textbook library encompassing all topics commonly encountered in the first years of university undergraduate education, the focus of its efforts has shifted from content creation to acquisition, distribution and translation. In the intervening years since GTP was started, there have been many other initiatives focused on providing more cost-effective solutions for university students. These range from better funded OER sites such as Connexions at Rice University to low-cost sites like Boundless Books, to textbook rental sites like Chegg. Entities engaged in the effort to provided lower cost options for textbooks tend to cooperate with each other, so visitors to a site like GTP will find links to other sites with similar objectives. Global Text still receives contributions of textbooks from authors who are aligned with its mission. Distribution to developing countries is still the GTP focus. Thus, translation has occupied most of GTP’s efforts in recent years. Several books are avialable in Spanish and more translations are underway with participation from university students and volunteer translators from Europe and Latin America. Students working on Spanish translations made a video of the value of the experience to them. Translations are also underway into Arabic, Chinese, and Dari.
Organization[edit] The Global Text Project was set up jointly by Rick Watson of the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia and Don McCubbrey of the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver. Rick Watson and Don McCubbrey currently serve as co-project leaders of GTP. Many other faculty from several institutions contributed greatly to GTP since its inception. In its early years valuable input was received from Wayne Huang from the Ohio University, Franz Lehner from the University of Passau in Germany, Andres Sepulveda from the Universidad de Concepción in Chile, and Negwa Badra from the Ain Shams University in Egypt.
See also[edit] • Open source curriculum • Wikibooks, Textbook • Education, Free education, Education in Africa, History of education • Developing country