An initiative by Rice University, OpenStax is a non-profit organization with the purpose of providing access to high quality education to all students regardless of their financial capabilities. In a time when students are burdened by high textbook costs, OpenStax offers free, high quality textbooks available online for anyone. In addition, these textbooks are peer-reviewed to ensure the validity and value of the information presented. The books cover most of the scientific disciplines, and offer many value-added features, including annotation and online editing. OpenStax also allows high quality printing of textbooks at a much lower price than the traditional text books.
For professors, using OpenStax is an opportunity to incorporate into your course a free, peer-reviewed text utilizing innovative technology. OpenStax textbooks can be tailored to your class needs. Moreover, you can acquire supplementary materials provided by OptenStax’s partners. How to use OpenStax:
- Review a textbook: You can download a pdf from the website
- Try it out: Try a chapter from the book with your students
- Adopt a textbook: Paste the URl into your syllabus
- Recommend: Share your experience with other professors to maximize the benefit
- Engage: You can be involved by posting corrections, providing examples to challenging concepts or volunteering as an editor or author
- Build the perfect book: You can customize the books to fit the scope of your course and your students needs
If you are a student, OpenStax would offer you terrific help with accessing free text books for studying or even suggesting OpenStax to your professor.
- Access it anywhere: You can either download pdf of a book for free or buy a printed version for a very cheap price
- Make it yours: You can choose the design of your book to get a customized version
- Support the movement: Join OpenStax to take advantage of great free textbooks and spread the word
Learn more about OpenStax:
Omnia Abdallah
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Omnia Abdallah is the 2016 Center for Scholarly Communication intern, and an SBU MBA student. Her professional experience includes work at the peer-reviewed open access press, Hindawi Publishing.
