Open Textbooks

The High Cost of Textbooks

Over the last two decades, the price of textbooks has risen at almost twice the rate of inflation. On average, students in the US spend $900 a year on textbooks. This amounts to 20% of annual tuition at a four-year university, and 50% of tuition at a typical community college. Universities and consumer rights groups hoped electronic textbooks and other digital materials would help combat rising textbook costs, but instead, the prices of textbooks have continued to increase.

The development of open textbooks is one of the most promising ways devised by professors and students to combat these huge expenses.

How Open Textbooks Limit Cost

Open textbooks are published online and are freely available to anyone with an Internet connection. Some are collaboratively produced by users, but others are authored and edited by experts and scholars who have volunteered their time to create alternatives to expensive traditional textbooks. Typically published under Creative Commons or similar licenses that have few restrictions on distribution for non-commercial purposes, open textbooks can often be purchased in bound paper format or students can print them for around $30.

This website will help you learn more about open textbooks. The FAQ section deals with some basic questions about how open textbooks are used in the classroom and their possible drawbacks and advantages. Click on Where to Find Open Textbooks to find the best resources for finding open textbook materials, and the Background page for links to more information about the current textbook market and the open textbook movement, and the Whitepaper (pdf) to download a scholarly article on open textbooks.