TCC Partners with OpenStax to Promote Free Textbooks

Tulsa Community College will participate in a strategic partnership with OpenStax to encourage use of free textbooks on campus. TCC is one of 11 schools selected for the Open Educational Resource Institutional Partnership Program for the 2016-2017 academic school year.

Open educational resources, including the free, peer-reviewed textbooks offered by OpenStax, eliminate cost barriers for students and allow every student immediate access to learning materials. OpenStax texts also meet standard scope and sequence requirements and are peer-reviewed by educators to ensure accuracy and ease of use.

“With the rising cost of textbooks and increasing financial burden placed on students, it is incumbent on higher education to engage in the exploration of open educational resources and provide cost-effective means for student access to quality learning materials,” said TCC President and CEO Leigh B. Goodson.

Students at TCC have already benefitted from OpenStax textbooks through the work of Professor Jennifer Kneafsey who is using OpenStax textbooks in her Biology classes. The partnership with OpenStax also supports TCC’s 2016-2020 Strategic Plan to address access to affordable, quality textbooks and course materials.

OpenStax textbooks are comparable to textbooks that cost $200 or more and are available for free online and in PDF, and are available at very low cost in print. TCC students could save an estimated $163,000 on textbooks for the upcoming academic year.

The Open Educational Resource Institutional Partnership Program provides TCC with free consultation as the College increases the use of open educational resources on each campus and works with a community of institutions dedicated to lowering the cost of course materials using OER.

OpenStax, a nonprofit based at Rice University, uses philanthropic grants to produce high-quality, peer-reviewed textbooks that are free online and low-cost in print. It launched in 2012 with the goal of publishing free textbooks for the nation’s 25 most-attended college courses and is on track to meet its goal of saving students $500 million by 2020.