Open-access textbooks move ahead

Abstract

For years, people have complained about the cost of college textbooks. And science textbooks are some of the most expensive. The list prices for hardcover versions from sellers like Amazon are typically $120–$150, sometimes even more. Renting books or buying online access to them brings the price down, but those options are still budget busters for some students. James V. Koch, professor of economics emeritus and president emeritus of Old Dominion University, has studied the college textbook market. In his 2013 report Turning the Page, published by the Lumina Foundation, he found that about 30% of students don’t buy textbooks at all. They are borrowing them or going without. And of the students who do buy a textbook, only one-third are buying new textbooks. As an alternative to those high prices, open-access textbooks—more properly called open educational resources (OERs)—have been making inroads. OERs are exactly what they sound like: online