Earlier this month, an EdWeek Market Brief reported that Amazon is preparing to beta-test a platform for open educational resources (OER) — textbooks and other classroom instructional materials that are provided online at no charge to users. Reportedly the platform will be called Amazon Inspire and is tentatively scheduled for public roll-out within the next two months.
What will it look like? Initial reports indicate that Amazon Inspire will be designed largely to mimic the experience of shopping on Amazon: site users will be able to search for OER by category/subject/format, to filter their search results by faceting, to add ratings and reviews, and to get recommendations based on their demonstrated interests. Furthermore, educators will be able to use Amazon Inspire for self-publishing and as a curation platform for their institutions’ own open digital products.