OpenStax

OpenStax (formerly OpenStax College) is a nonprofit ed-tech initiative based at Rice University. Since 2012, OpenStax has created peer-reviewed, openly licensed textbooks, which are available in free digital formats and for a low cost in print. Most books are also available in Kindle versions on Amazon.com and in the iBooks Store. OpenStax's first textbook was College Physics, which was published online, in print, and in iBooks in 2012. OpenStax has also launched OpenStax Tutor Beta, an adaptive courseware based on cognitive science principles, machine learning, and OpenStax content.

OpenStax
Type of site
Open Educational Resources
Available inEnglish, Polish
HeadquartersRice University
Houston, Texas, U.S
OwnerRice University
RevenueNonprofit funded by foundation grants and commercial services[1]
URLOpenStax.org
Launched2012 (2012)
Current statusActive
Content license
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International[2]

Aiming to compete with major publishers' offerings,[3][4] the project was initially funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Michelson 20MM Foundation, and the Maxfield Foundation.[3][5][6] All textbook content is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Licenses; specifically, the books are available under the CC BY license (except for Calculus, which is CC BY-NC-SA), which means that instructors are able to use, adapt, and remix the content, as long as they attribute OpenStax.

In 2017, OpenStax announced that they were partnering with UK Open Textbooks to spread the use of their open content in the UK[7], and partnering with Katalyst Education to form OpenStax Polska, bringing Polish-language versions of select OpenStax books to universities in Poland.

Editorial process

OpenStax textbooks follow a traditional peer review process aimed at ensuring they meet a high quality standard before publication. Textbooks are developed and peer-reviewed by educators in an attempt to ensure they are readable and accurate, meet the scope and sequence requirements of each course, are supported by instructor ancillaries, and are available with the latest technology-based learning tools. The editors to encourage reviews of the book, slides and other teaching materials. However, notwithstanding the peer-review process, the books have come under criticism for the large numbers of typos and other errors they contain.

The free, online version of OpenStax books are kept up-to-date on an ongoing basis. Instructors are encouraged to submit errata suggestions via the OpenStax website, and errata suggestions are reviewed by subject matter experts. Revisions are made when it is determined to be pedagogically necessary. New PDFs and print versions of the books are released each summer when substantial changes are present.[8]

List of textbooks

OpenStax's original goal was to publish openly licensed textbooks for the 25 highest-enrolled undergraduate college courses, and they exceeded that goal in 2016. All books are available for free in web view and PDF on openstax.org. The books are also available for a low cost in print, and many of them exist in iBooks versions. As of April 2020, the OpenStax library includes the following[9] (note that only currently available editions are shown. 2e is an indication of a second edition):

Math
  • Pre-algebra
  • Pre-algebra 2e
  • Elementary Algebra
  • Intermediate Algebra
  • College Algebra
  • Algebra and Trigonometry
  • Precalculus
  • Calculus (Volumes 1, 2, and 3)
  • Introductory Statistics
  • Introductory Business Statistics

Science
  • Anatomy and Physiology
  • Astronomy
  • Biology 2e
  • Concepts of Biology
  • Microbiology
  • Chemistry 2e
  • Chemistry: Atoms First 2e
  • College Physics
  • University Physics (Volumes 1, 2, and 3)
  • Fizyka dla szkół wyższych (University Physics in Polish, Volumes 1, 2, and 3)

Social Sciences
  • American Government 2e
  • Principles of Economics 2e
  • Principles of Macroeconomics 2e
  • Principles of Microeconomics 2e
  • Psychology
  • Introduction to Sociology 2e

Humanities
  • U.S. History

Business
  • Introduction to Business
  • Business Ethics
  • Principles of Accounting (Volumes 1 and 2)
  • Introductory Business Statistics
  • Principles of Management
  • Organizational Behavior
  • Business Law I Essentials

Miscellaneous
  • College Success

High school and AP Courses
  • Physics High School
  • Statistics High School
  • Biology for AP Courses
  • College Physics for AP Courses
  • Principles of Macroeconomics for AP Courses 2e
  • Principles of Microeconomics for AP Courses 2e

See also

Notes
  1. "How a University Took on the Textbook Industry - EdSurge News". EdSurge. 2019-10-24. Archived from the original on 2019-10-26. Retrieved 2019-10-26.
  2. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2019-10-03. Retrieved 2019-10-26.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. Smith, Mitch. "Why Pay for Intro Textbooks?". Inside Higher Ed. Archived from the original on 16 June 2013. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
  4. Coldewey, Devin. "Rice University And OpenStax Announce First Open-Source Textbooks". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 21 May 2013. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
  5. Robe, Johnathan. "Free College Textbooks: Wave of the Future?". Forbes. Archived from the original on 8 August 2013. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
  6. Guttenplan, D.D. "Big Savings for U.S. Students in Open-Source Book Program". New York Times. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
  7. "Rice University-based OpenStax partners with UK Open Textbooks". news.rice.edu. Archived from the original on 2018-09-20. Retrieved 2018-09-20.
  8. Palmiotto, Anthony (2017-04-27). "OpenStax Revisions". OpenStax.org. Archived from the original on 2019-01-08. Retrieved 2019-01-07.
  9. "Subjects - OpenStax". Archived from the original on 2019-10-09. Retrieved 2019-10-15.
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