Open Educational Resources: OER: Open Textbooks
What is an Open Textbook?
Open textbooks that are books that are freely available to download, modify or print, usually through a Creative Commons license.
Open textbooks are free to students; there is a small charge for a printed copy. A downloaded copy of an open digital textbook can be kept forever, rather than expiring at the end of the semester (as digital textbooks from publishers do). Publishers charge for their digital textbooks, sometimes as much as the printed copy.
Many students would rather have a print textbook than an online textbook. OER texts can be printed and sold in the bookstore for a much lower cost (less than $50 each).
Where Can I Find Open Textbooks?
- BC Campus OpenEdOpen textbooks for the 40 highest enrolled first- and second-year subject areas in the British Columbia's public, post-secondary system.
- MERLOT Open TextbooksMultimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT) is a curated resource of free and online textbooks for use in teaching and learning.
- OER CommonsProvides college-level open textbooks from higher education institutions around the world.
- Open Educational Resources InitiativeA list of some of the most popular OER collections.
- OpenStax CollegeInitiated by Rice University, their free textbooks are developed and peer-reviewed to ensure they meet the scope and sequence requirements of college courses.
- Open Textbook LibraryCreated by the University of Minnesota to support development of high-quality open textbooks in various subjects.
- Saylor AcademyCollection of freely available open textbooks for download, online reading, and sharing.
- Milne (SUNY) Open TextbooksOpen SUNY Textbooks is an open access textbook publishing initiative established by State University of New York libraries and supported by SUNY Innovative Instruction Technology Grants.