Higher education continues to get more expensive in the United States, but efforts like the Open Textbook Catalog at the University of Minnesota help organize and evaluate less expensive textbook options for professors to adopt. All books linked to the site are complete and openly licensed for free use, ready for use in English-language classrooms anywhere.
An estimate of the 2011-2012 school year determined that US students would spend an average of $1168 on course materials like textbooks, fueling an eight billion dollar industry. Especially with the frequency of revised editions that publishers release to prompt students to buy new textbooks instead of utilizing second-hand markets, it is more and more difficult to be thrifty. Institutional reform may be necessary, making efforts like the Open Textbook Catalog so exciting.
Of course, professors assigning books and syllabi have no reason to pick the most expensive options, but they have an active interest in picking the best materials to help their students learn. That makes the evaluation of open textbooks so valuable, and the University of Minnesota pays $500-$1000 stipends for faculty to review the textbooks, ultimately enabling other teachers to better understand what resources are available.
Most open textbooks are available in print for students who prefer a paper copy, typically for USD $40 in black and white or about USD $20-25 in PDF or EPUB formats. Online access to all materials is free.
Creative Commons Love: Alexis Fam Photography on Flickr.com
Written by Jonathan Davidson