LibGuides: Open Educational Resources: Open Textbooks

What Are Open Textbooks?

Open textbooks are materials that are freely available, usually through a Creative Commons license, to download, modify, and print in various formats.

Why should faculty adopt an open textbook?

more affordable than commercially available textbooks
enable student education budgets to stretch further
faculty can readily customize open textbooks to better meet their local teaching and learning needs
provide pricing, flexibility and customization advantages that commercially available textbooks currently do not provide

Creating Open Educational Resources

Interested in creating your own open textbook or other open educational resources?

Connect with John Robertson in Educational Technology and Media.

Where Can I Find Open Textbooks?

Open Textbook Library
Created by the University of Minnesota to support development of high-quality open textbooks in various subjects.
Includes reviews of open textbooks.
Openstax College
Initiated by Rice University, their free textbooks are developed and peer-reviewed to ensure they meet the scope and sequence requirements of college courses.
Low-cost print copies available for purchase.
Saylor Academy
Collection of freely available open textbooks for download, online reading, and sharing.
OER Commons
Provides college-level open textbooks from higher education institutions around the world.
BC Campus OpenEd
Open textbooks for the 40 highest enrolled first- and second-year subject areas in the British Columbia's public, post-secondary system.
Open Washington - Washington 45
List of open textbooks and course materials that match with Washington State's general education categories.

Library e-books as Textbook Alternative

The SPU Library currently has access to over 270,000 e-books. Library e-books can be used as textbook alternatives or supplemental materials to enhance delivery of your course. Many are already available through library e-book subscriptions or you can suggest an e-book for purchase by contacting your liaison librarian.

Many SPU e-books allow unlimited simultaneous users, but verify before using an eBook for your course:

Search in SPU Primo and limit to eBooks under Format
Choose Online access and identify eBook source to determine # simultaneous users allowed:

for e-books with access of “view full text” (purchased individually by SPU Library) or from other publishers not listed below, check with your liaison librarian
- Unlimited simultaneous users:
  - Ebook Central Academic Complete
  - Wiley Online Ebooks
  - Oxford University Press Ebooks

*screenshot of results page in SPU Primo for Oxford Handbook of Nutrition and Dietetics e-book with Online access link underneath book title.

Use the Permalink within SPU Primo to link directly to the e-book record. Include this direct, durable link within your Canvas course or syllabus. Most e-books also allow you to link directly to individual chapters, but you may need to include the library's EZproxy prefix (http://ezproxy.spu.edu/login?url=). For additional information about direct links, see the library's page on persistent links.

*screenshot of SPU Primo book information for Oxford Handbook of Nutrition and Dietetics showing Permalink option and view full text link under View It section circled in orange.

Why Open Textbooks?

Research on Open Textbook Adoption Efficacy

Multi-institutional Study of the Impact of Open Textbooks
Study of 16,000 students across 10 institutions, compares several measures of student academic success between those using open textbooks and those using traditional textbooks.
Mainstreaming Open Textbooks: Educator Perspectives on the Impact of OpenStax College Open Textbooks
Results shows that OER enables a majority of educators to better respond to student needs, making teaching easier, and changing teaching practices.

OER Initiatives in Universities

California State University
Launched the Affordable Learning Solutions project that enables faculty to choose and provide more affordable, quality educational content for their students.
University of Minnesota
Created the Open Textbook Library, a catalog of open access textbooks reviewed by faculty members and made available by the University of Minnesota's College of Education and Human Development.
State University of New York (Open SUNY)
Open access textbook publishing initiative established by the SUNY Libraries that allows creation of high-quality, cost-effective course materials.
North Carolina State University
Launched the Alt-Textbook Project that allows faculty to innovate pedagogically, enhance access for students to high-quality, tailored educational materials, and reduce textbook costs.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The eText@Illinois program allows UIUC students access to e-textbooks and other classroom materials with multimedia, notes, and assignments embedded directly in context. Instructors can add original or existing materials easily, and students can save 40-75% versus traditional books.
UMass Amherst
Launched the Open Education Initiative Grants in 2011 for instructors who use low-cost or free alternatives to expensive course materials.