Dive Summary:
- Advocates for the Open Course Library, a project offering free digital textbooks and other materials written by Washington community college faculty members for 81 of the most-taken college courses, has saved students an estimated $5 million in its few years of existence.
- Washington's Legislature and the Bill & Melinda Gates each put up $750,000 for the project, which has employed dozens of state community college faculty to write the textbooks and curriculum material, which are also available in print for around $20.
- The State Board of Community and Technical Colleges used a Tuesday telephone news conference to announce that the final 39 courses and related textbooks were completed and available online.
From the article:
... “It’s a really smart investment of state funds,” said Nicole Allen, textbook advocate for the national advocacy organization Student Public Interest Research Groups, during a telephone news conference Tuesday. The group has made reducing the cost of college textbooks one of its signature campaigns; openly licensed textbooks have also gained ground through efforts in California, North Dakota and British Columbia. ...