In October 2012, the government of British Columbia announced its support for the creation of open textbooks for the 40 highest-impact first and second-year courses in the province’s public post-secondary system. This project has generated a lot of interest in open textbooks in general, the financial benefits they may have for students, and the impact such open educational resources may have on curriculum development and flexible pedagogies. This session will provide an overview of open textbooks and will specifically explore:

• an update on the BC open text book project
• individual faculty and institutional changes in practice
• benefits and challenges of adopting an open textbook
• options for finding, selecting, and building on existing open educational resources

We will also share experiences to gain insights into what we should be aware of when venturing into the use of OER, including a discussion of Creative Commons licensing.