Happy Open Access Week! As the first open access press in North America, we are grateful for the opportunity to engage with other open access advocates and to promote the removal of barriers to knowledge. The 2016 theme is “Open in Action” which calls for scholars and publishers to commit to various open access practices. You can find more information here.
In celebration, we’d like to share our 2016 all-stars—the books that have been downloaded the most from January to the end of September 2016. We’d also like to thank Athabasca University for its continued support of our ambitious mandate.
- Learning in Virtual Worlds (April 2016) 1892 downloads
It’s no surprise that a book about online communities has found a substantial audience in the digital world. Learning in Virtual Worlds assembles a team of international experts who outline the emerging trends and developments in the use of 3D virtual worlds for teaching and learning. Download your copy here.
- Living on the Land (June 2016) 2135 downloads
Boo
ks about distance education and online learning tend to be the most downloaded, but this year we have a surprise contender for the top spot. Living on the Land: Indigenous Women’s Understanding of Place comes in at 2135 downloads. We are thrilled with the success of this important book and we’d like to thank rabble.ca for featuring an excerpt of this book and getting the conversation started on Twitter.
3 and 2. Emergence and Innovation in Digital Learning (June 2016) 2626 downloads and Emerging Technologies in Distance Education (July 2010) 2743 downloads
Georg
e Veletsianos has published two books with AU Press and they both made it onto the top downloads list even though they were published six years apart. His most recent book, Emergence and Innovation in Digital Learning, builds on the work from Emerging Technologies in Distance Education and has 2626 downloads. You can read an excerpt of Veletsianos’ latest book on the University Affairs blog.
- The Theory and Practice of Online Learning (May 2008) 5218 downloads
And finally, at 5218 downloads over the past 9 months, The Theory and Practice of Online Learning is our most downloaded book of the year. Not only that, it is our most downloaded book every year since it was published in 2008 and at the end of 2015, it had 109,451 downloads. Jump on the bandwagon and download your copy here. If you prefer to read in Chinese, you can download that version too!
