The collaboration between Rice University’s nonprofit publisher OpenStax and eleven colleges and universities across the country is expected to turn out as a major money saver for their students in the next academic year.
According to Rice, the students will be able to save nearly $17.4 million on textbook and materials costs with the use of free learning materials available on OpenStax.
The non-profit publisher offers free online textbooks and has become a leader in open educational resources (OER) since its inception in 2012.
“These schools worked exceptionally hard to increase student savings, student access, and faculty academic freedom by encouraging faculty to consider OER for their courses,” Nicole Finkbeiner, director of institutional relations at OpenStax said.
According to Stephen Levey, associate vice chancellor of academic instruction at Houston Community College (HCC), one of the partner colleges, the collaboration with OpenStax has been “a valuable asset to the growth of OER and our zero-textbook degrees at the college.”
“Its activities and contribution to our overall OER effort align directly with several of our strategic objectives, including improving the student experience, increasing innovation in teaching and learning and expanding the use of technology throughout the institution,” Levey said.
Meanwhile, nine new partner schools have been selected by the non-profit publisher for its 2018-2019 program to improve access to quality learning materials which includes Louisiana Community and Technical College System, University of Missouri System , Arkansas State University, San Diego City College, Palomar College (California), San Jacinto College (Texas), Santa Monica College (California), Thomas Nelson Community College (Virginia), William Rainey Harper College (Illinois) and University of Missouri System.
