The Saylor Foundation has been known for organizing comprehensive curriculum for popular subject areas, and licensing the resources when they can under the CC Attribution license. Now with the launch of its Open Textbook Challenge, the Saylor Foundation aims to expand the amount of high-quality CC BY-licensed course materials by offering a $20,000 award for open textbooks! If a textbook is submitted and accepted for use with Saylor.org‘s course materials, then the copyright owners receive $20,000 while the referrer receives $250. Then the textbook is re-licensed (if not already) for free and open use under CC BY. For more information, visit http://www.saylor.org/OTC. The deadline is November 1, 2011.
To submit a textbook with Creative Commons as the referrer, go to http://www.saylor.org/otc-form/?refcode=6.
Textbooks developed through the Open Textbook Challenge have the potential to reach a large group of learners. Saylor recently announced a new partnership with StraighterLine that will help students learning with open educational resources to receive credit for their work and course completion.