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The following is taken from the Open Textbook page.

Higher education

Open textbooks offer 80% or more savings to higher education students compared to traditional textbooks, according to Student Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs). Research commissioned by the Florida state legislature found similar savings, and various state, provincial, national, and institutional initiatives have emerged to support creation and use of open textbooks as a result.

Open Oregon, a state-funded initiative active since 2015, indicated in an annual report that open textbooks can not only secure significant savings for students, these savings compound over time as materials are reused. For instance, Open Oregon initially offered $52,098 in funding for open textbooks in 2015. By 2019, the program estimated that students in Oregon higher education had secured $477,409.24 in savings.

Organizations supporting creation of open textbooks cite other reasons for doing so that go beyond cost savings. In 2010, the Florida state legislature pointed to "compelling academic reasons" for using open textbooks that included: "improved quality, flexibility and access to resources, interactive and active learning experiences, currency of textbook information, broader professional collaboration, and the use of teaching and learning technology to enhance educational experiences" (OATTF, p. i).

Based on survey data gathered in September 2020, Student PIRGs cited additional reasons for supporting accessible open textbooks in light of the evolving COVID-19 pandemic. They noted that, while commercial textbook prices had not continued to surge in the past year, students experiencing economic uncertainty, food shortages, and limited access to Internet were more likely to forgo or lose access to course materials. This report highlighted the economic inequalities that are further exacerbated by an educational market characterized by cost inflation and demanding technological requirements.

Milestones

Milestones for open textbooks include creation of large-scale publishing initiatives and awards for significant publication efforts. Because authors do not make money from the sale of open textbooks, several organizations have tried to incentivize their creation with awards, grants, and publishing support services.

In November 2010, Anthony Brandt was awarded an "Access to Artistic Excellence" grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for his innovative music appreciation course in Connexions. The module completed with grant funds was entitled "Hearing Harmony."

In December 2010, open textbook publisher Flat World Knowledge was recognized by the American Library Association's Business Reference and Services Section (ALA BRASS) by being named to the association's list of "Outstanding Business Reference Sources: The 2010 Selection of Recent Titles." The categories of business and economics open textbooks from Flat World Knowledge's catalog were selected for this award and referenced as "an innovative new vehicle for affordable (or free) online access to premier instructional resources in business and economics." Specific criteria used by the American Library Association BRASS when evaluating titles for selection were:

A resource compiled specifically to supply information on a certain subject or group of subjects in a form that will facilitate its ease of use. The works are examined for authority and reputation of the publisher, author, or editor; accuracy; appropriate bibliography; organization, comprehensiveness, and value of the content; currency and unique addition to the field; ease of use for intended purpose; quality and accuracy of indexing; and quality and usefulness of graphics and illustrations. Each year more electronic reference titles are published, and additional criteria by which these resources are evaluated include search features, stability of content, graphic design quality, and accuracy of links. Works selected are intended to be suitable for medium to large academic and public libraries.

After receiving this award, Flat World Knowledge shifted business models to become for-profit.

Connexions announced a series of two grants in early 2011 that would allow the platform to produce a total of 20 open textbooks ultimately distributed as the OpenStax collection. Initially funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Michelson 20MM Foundation, and the Maxfield Foundation, this project expanded over an 18-month time frame to include open textbooks for Anatomy & Physiology, Sociology, Biology, Biology for non-majors, and Physics. The second phase of the OpenStax project would produce an additional 15 titles. The most expensive part of this process was image rights clearing with cleared images becoming available for reuse in even more titles. As of June 2021, OpenStax indicates that their textbooks are in use in 60% of U.S. colleges and universities and 100 countries worldwide.

In February 2012, the Saylor Foundation sponsored an "Open Textbook Challenge," offering a $20,000 reward for newly written open textbooks or existing textbooks released under a CC-BY license.

The Text and Academic Author's Association awarded a 2011 Textbook Excellence Award ("Texty") to the first open textbook to ever win such recognition in that year. A maximum of eight academic titles could earn this award each year. The title "Organizational Behavior" by Talya Bauer and Berrin Erdogan earned one of seven 2011 Textbook Excellence Awards granted. Bauer & Erdogan's "Organizational Behavior" open textbook was published by Flat World Knowledge.

After its launch in 2012, the BC Open Textbook Pilot went on to win many accolades for its commitment to providing open textbooks to students in British Columbia, Canada. BCcampus was tasked with coordinating the program, whose goal was to "make higher education more accessible by reducing student cost through the use of openly licensed textbooks." BCcampus' catalog of open textbooks is widely regarded as a leading source of information about existing OER in Canada. The organization has taken the lead in educating the OER community about textbook accessibility via its Accessibility Toolkit. In 2015 and 2016, BCcampus won Creative Innovation and Open Education Excellence awards from the Open Education Consortium. In 2018, it won a SPARC Innovator Award.

In 2012 David Ernst, a faculty member in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota, founded Open Textbook Library (OTL) to help other faculty members locate and adopt open textbooks. Ernst launched traveling workshops that presented the concept of OER to faculty members and invited them to review textbooks in OTL using a pre-set rubric. In 2014, Ernst created Open Textbook Network to provide peer support to institutions looking to expand their open education initiatives. Later renamed Open Education Network, this organization had grown by June 2021 to comprise 140 members and 1,147 campuses across North America and select locations worldwide. Its initiatives came to include local workshops, a publishing cooperative, a certificate in OER Librarianship, and an annual Summer Summit. Meanwhile, Open Textbook Library had grown to 883 textbooks by June 2021.

In 2013, the Maricopa County Community College District launched the Maricopa Millions Study. The goal of this project was to "radically decrease student costs by offering LOW COST or NO COST options for course materials." The project aimed to save students $5 in five years.

In 2013, Tidewater Community College rolled out the first known degree program using exclusively zero-cost course materials. Tidewater's Associate of Science in Business Administration was known as a "Z-Degree" program, and in 2017 the college reported that the degree had garnered students $1 million in savings to date.

Based in Canada, the Rebus Foundation provides support for authors seeking to publish open textbooks. The foundation provides professional development, facilitates workshops, and encourages authors to connect over shared OER projects.

Pressbooks is an "open-source, book production tool that is built around the WordPress platform." Many institutions have built open textbook publishing efforts around Pressbooks. Some of the results may be viewed on the Pressbooks Directory. As of June 2021, more than 2,500 books had been published to the directory.

Other significant awards in open textbook publishing can be found via Open Education Global--a community that presents annual awards for innovation and leadership in open education.

Instruction

Open textbooks typically employ licenses that allow anyone the freedom to retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute all contents. As such, open textbooks are flexible tools for instructors wishing to build and rebuild materials for their courses. The flexibility of open textbooks is further detailed below.

Traditional textbook publishers frequently recoup costs by making minor changes to new editions. Students are forced to pay these new costs, which can act as a barrier to learning if the student chooses not to purchase the book in question. By contrast, open textbooks can be freely modified and re-used as long as they bear a CC BY or comparable license.

Since 2010, meta-analyses have sought to demonstrate the efficacy of open textbooks for student learning. While acknowledging confounding factors like differences in teaching styles, these studies suggest that open textbooks typically produce similar or superior learning outcomes as compared to commercial textbooks. As of 2021, the not-for-profit Open Education Group continues to fund annual fellowships to study the cost of education, student success outcomes when using open educational resources (OER), usage patterns for OER, and perceptions of OER. Resulting studies are collected on the organization's website.

Projects

A number of projects seek to develop, support and promote open textbooks. Many open textbook initiatives are funded on the national, state, or institutional level. Notable examples are listed below.

United States

For more information, see SPARC's List of North American OER Policies and Projects and the United States Open Textbooks Pilot Program.

• William and Flora Hewlett Foundation: A noted funder
• Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: A noted funder, particularly of OpenStax and K-12 OER.
• Open Washington and Open Course Library: Initiatives based in Washington state.
• Community College Consortium for OER (CCCOER): A national consortium that "promotes the awareness and adoption of open educational policies, practices, and resources."
• Open Oregon: An initiative based in Oregon that "promotes textbook affordability for community college and university students, and facilitates widespread adoption of open, low-cost, high-quality materials."
• California Open Source Textbook Project and MERLOT
• Affordable Learning Ohio: A "series of initiatives to lower the cost of college for Ohio higher education students by assisting our member libraries and campuses in identifying strategies for Open and Affordable Learning textbook and course material adoption,"
• Rhode Island Open Textbook Initiative: Funded by the state of Rhode Island.
• GoOpen Connecticut: Supported by SHB 6117.
• Orange Grove Textbooks Plus: A collaborative project between Florida Virtual Campus and the University Press of Florida.
• Affordable Learning Georgia
• Maryland Open Source Textbooks
• Michigan Open Book Project
• Milne Open Textbooks: A textbook publishing initiative by the SUNY system in New York.
• Mavs Open Press: A textbook publishing initiative at the University of Texas, Arlington.
• PDXOpen: A textbook publishing initiative by Portland State University.
• Utah Open Textbooks: Started with a pilot project in 2012.
• VIVA Open: An initiative based in Virginia.
• Affordable Learning Louisiana: Sponsored by the Louisiana Library Network.

Canada

For more information, see Open Educational Resources in Canada and Canada's Open Education Initiatives, a list created by BCcampus.

• Open Education Alberta: A "collaborative, no-fee publishing services for open textbooks and other open educational resources."
• BC Open Textbooks: An initiative supported by the province of British Columbia.
• Manitoba Open Textbook Initiative
• eCampus Ontario Open Textbook Initiative

International Initiatives

• See open educational practices in Australia
• See OER platforms from around the world
• Open Scotland
• UK Open Textbook Project
• Open Textbooks for Hong Kong
• Latin American Open Textbook Initiative
• Open Textbooks Pakistan
• OER Africa

Accessibility

As institutions moved toward digital access during the COVID-19 pandemic, accessibility of course materials became a mounting concern. Specifically, accessibility for people with disabilities has been a challenge across resources including open textbooks. Web accessibility is defined by W3C as adherence to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Studies have increasingly shown that open textbooks fail multiple criteria outlined in WCAG. These studies have caused the open education community to produce guides for improving the accessibility of open textbooks and OER.