I am pleased to announce the 2nd edition of the edited text Theory and Practice of Online Learning. As the first edition, this one is available in paper copy ($39.95 Canadian) and in PDF for open access download. This is one of the first 6 books produced by the newly launched Athabasca University Press which bills itself as Canada’s first Open Access Press. The 2nd edition is licensed under a Creative commons, attribute, no commercial and no derivative license.

In the 2nd Edition “every chapter in the widely distributed first edition has been updated, and four new chapters on current issues such as connectivism and social software innovations have been added. Essays by practitioners and scholars active in the complex, diverse, and rapidly evolving field of distance education blend scholarship and research; practical attention to the details of teaching and learning; and mindful attention to the economics of the business of education.”

The first edition sold the 400 print copies quite rapidly and downloads of the full text have continued at over 4,000 per month totally more than 85,000 since its release in 2004. Five chapters from the first edition were also translated and many chapters are used in online graduate and other distance education and training courses. This experiment with ‘open access’ was by all counts a grand success, even without money flowing to the authors or as is more likely to the publishers.

For more details regarding the motivation for publishing in open access format and to see brief summaries of each of the chapters, interested readers may wish to read my introduction to the 2nd edition