<p>Students worried about the rising cost of college textbooks are about to get a break. Connexions, an initiative at Rice University in Houston devoted to producing textbooks using open-source materials, will produce free textbooks for five of the most-attended subjects in American colleges.</p>
<p>Funded by a number of philanthropies, including the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the OpenStax College textbooks will be competitive with texts that currently retail for $150 or more, said the books editor in chief, David Harris. Furthermore, because our content is openly licensed, faculty will be able to easily modify and adapt OpenStax College content to meet specific course needs. </p>
<p>hopefully this will lead to a wide expansion of free or low $ texbooks for US students and will break the cartel like hold that a few select book publishers have on textbooks in this country.</p>
<p>The math department at my school has a number of homemade course packets that are sold for ~$30. The nice thing about these is that they are designed to sync with the worksheets, labs, and lectures.</p>
<p>[Free</a>. Open-source. Peer-reviewed. High-quality textbooks for your college course. - OpenStax College](<a href=“OpenStax”>OpenStax)</p>
<p>Currently includes:</p>
<ul>
<li>Physics (introductory, for pre-meds and biology majors)</li>
<li>Sociology (introductory)</li>
<li>Biology (introductory, for biology majors)</li>
<li>Concepts of Biology (for non-biology majors)</li>
<li>Anatomy and Physiology (for nursing and similar majors)</li>
</ul>
<p>Any faculty members here considering using any of these or other free textbooks for their courses (either in college, or, where appropriate, AP/IB level in high school)?</p>
<p>I will definitely be having a look. But the variability in quality across books in the areas i teach is high and I get pretty picky. Having said that, I care very much about book costs and would compromise up to a degree if it provides this much savings.</p>
<p>Would the availability of free or very low cost books be helpful in allowing the specification of multiple books for the course? For example, suppose book A has a better explanation of topic X, but book B has a better explanation of topic Y, both of which are covered in the course. If they are both free or very low cost, would that be helpful in that both can be used without being too much of a cost burden on the students?</p>
<p>^ That’s an interesting concept and possibility if the number of free books increases. It is the thinking behind reading packages that combine chapters and readings from different sources. I know some have argued is some sort of conspiracy theory by professors and/or schools, when in fact its has entirely good motives behind it.</p>