The Open Textbooks for Hong Kong: From Conceptualization to Implementation

Abstract

As a specific type of open educational resources, open textbooks can be used as official textbooks for classroom-based teaching and learning in both universities and schools. The first official open textbook system just came into existence in Hong Kong although open textbooks have been adopted in North America for a decade. This paper describes the open textbook system for Hong Kong from its conceptualization to implementation. In this paper, the problems of traditional textbooks in Hong Kong that motivated the development of open textbooks are addressed. The development of this open textbook system is described, where the opportunities and challenges are discussed. Based on the lesson learned, an open textbook system should comprise four essential components, namely, a platform for operating open textbooks, a repository of open textbook contents, quality assurance mechanisms, and the continuous capacity building for users. In order for open textbooks to be sustained in the long term, public support should be garnered. Volunteer groups should be formed while continuous philantropic support should be solicited. From time to time, evaluation and reviews should be conducted for continuous improvement.