OER expert available to comment on Amazon Inspire relaunch

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David Ruth713-348-6327david@rice.edu
Open educational resources expert available to comment on Amazon Inspire relaunch
HOUSTON – (July 18, 2017) – Daniel Williamson, managing director of OpenStax, a Rice University-based publisher of open education resources (OER) and textbooks, is available to comment on the relaunch of Amazon Inspire.
In June 2016, Amazon announced the launch of Amazon Inspire, an educational website that the company touted as “a new, free service to support learning and teaching in the digital classroom … to help teachers discover and share free, quality digital educational resources.”
Amazon Inspire features a search tool that teachers can use to explore educational resources, a gather function educators can use to curate resources and an upload function that allows teachers to share content, among other features.
A problem quickly arose last year when educators found the site offering materials that had copyright and intellectual property rights issues. Amazon quickly pulled the material and has been working with educators and groups the past year to vet material for the relaunch of the site.
“Commercial companies can be beneficial for the open educational resource landscape and have the ability to improve access to resources and improve discoverability,” Williamson said. “The challenge for Amazon Inspire and other commercial entities entering the space is ensuring fair and transparent licensing processes that help students and instructors.
“Open educational resources are more than free books. They present opportunities to enhance academic freedom, and they allow students permanent, unrestricted access to the materials they need most.
“From one OER provider to another, we’re excited to have another member in the open resources community, but believe that Amazon should take care to embrace all of the OER principals — including maintaining an open stance when it comes to contributing to the advancement of the educational community by sharing any research findings,” he said.
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