By Rob Sabo
Paying for course materials can break a cash-strapped student’s budget. But now, universities across the nation are turning to digital course materials in an effort to curb rising costs of attending college and paying for books.
Open Course Library and OpenStax College are two non-profit organizations that are reshaping instruction through the use of free or low-cost textbooks in the most highly enrolled colleges classes. Here’s a closer look at the two models.
Open Course Library
Open Course Library was launched in 2011 by the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges to counter rapidly escalating costs of college textbooks. The initial phase of the program included 42 courses, and in April of 2013, OCL added another 39 courses. Coursework, which includes textbooks and videos, was developed by faculty and reviewed by subject matter experts. All courses were evaluated by an outside educational specialists as well.
The focus: Provide students access to lower-cost textbooks in classes with high enrollments, such as math, philosophy, accounting, biology, anthropology, chemistry, communications and many others. Course materials cost $30 or less, and when faculty choose to use Open Course Library for instruction, students can save an average of $100. Student Public Interest Research Groups estimate Open Course Library has saved students as much as $5.5 million in the few short years the program has been in place — a number that could jump to as high as $41.6 million annually if every instructor in the state used OCL materials.
Using OCL materials is optional, but the shift toward free online digital content is well underway. Materials are licensed as open educational resources, meaning they are freely shared and used by students not only in Washington but throughout the world. OCL was brought into play through two separate $750,000 grants from the state of Washington and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
OpenStax College
OpenStax College is an initiative of Rice University of Houston. The program, which launched in February of 2012, provides free online and low-cost print textbooks that were developed by educators and subject-matter experts. Books are found online in several different formats — PDF, EPUB and iPad — and can even be customized by educators to fit their specific needs. Coursework includes online homework lessons, assessment tools and tutorials to connect students with a wealth of free resources that can increase their learning and save them money. Money saved could reach up to $90 million over the next five years if OpenStax can capture 10 percent of textbook market share.
OpenStax started with far fewer titles in it’s library than its counterpart — just a modest five — but OpenStax now has many more popular titles in subjects such as psychology, biology, anatomy and physiology, statistics, history, and economics in its database of free online books. OpenStax College is supported by a number of philanthropic organizations, including the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Laura and John Arnold Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Twenty Million Minds Foundation, Calvin K. Kazanjian Economics Foundation and the Maxfield Foundation.
Increasing Use of Open Courseware in College Campuses
Open Course Library and OpenStax aren’t the first inceptors of free online course materials. Flat World Knowledge has been publishing open courseware books since 2007, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Open Courseware program averages about one million visits each month from visitors all over the world. Just 44 percent of site visits are from U.S. based students or educators — and 43 percent of site visits come from self-learners.
Despite their seeming widespread use, many professors are reluctant to switch to open course materials. Early versions of open-source materials often lacked the in-depth peer review and ancillary materials such as homework lessons and tutorials. Other professors simply have used the same textbooks for years and are extremely well-versed in their contents and have developed suitable lessons and lectures.
The difference between earlier incarnations and Open Source Library/OpenStax College is that these textbooks were designed to capture market share from major educational publishing houses and have received a much higher level of financial support by well-respected organizations. OpenStax College alone had 13,000 downloads in the text’s first 10 weeks on the market.
Make no mistake, textbook publishing is big, big business — about $4.5 billion annually, according to Time. For publishers such as Open Course Library and OpenStax college to make a dent in that figure, they are going to have to forge strong relationships with school administrators who choose their materials over companies such as McGraw-Hill and Cengage Learning. But those companies too are entering the digital arena with deeply discounted online versions of print books. Competition is good for business, and it’s clear that open course materials are an increasing element of the educational landscape.
About the Author:
Rob Sabo writes about business and education topics.
