Delhi University’s School of Open learning (SOl) is on its way to become first educational institute in the country to provide free e-textbooks. Recently, the university in a meeting with around seven publishers discussed the plan according to which 4.5 lakh students would have free access to the course books online.
Director of the SOl, CS Dubey told The Pioneer that four publishers have given consent to sign a Memorandum of Understanding under which SOl will have the “digital rights” to provide the text books published by these houses for the students of I, II and III year at the school.
“We told the publishers that your copyrights get violated as students who can’t afford to buy the books, get them photocopied. Hence, it is a viable option to enter into this project where we will pay you two to five paisa each book. Our students would be free to read the book, download it entirely or any page,” said Dubey.
The students would be given a user ID and password to have access to the material.
“The publisher can take benefit by providing access to more users than just SOl. If IGNOU students want to have access to e-books of any publisher, they should take membership through the SOl to take the benefit. The SOl would be a partner with publishers in providing this facility,” Dubey added.
To start with, the SOl will upload 200 books through their website.