The Open Textbook Catalog

In Higher Education

The two biggest institutional players in the higher education open textbook space are Boundless and OpenStax. Boundless Links to an external site. currently publishes 18 open textbooks in a wide range of subject areas. OpenStax Links to an external site. currently publishes 5 open textbooks, mostly in the sciences. The Saylor Foundation Links to an external site. maintains an archive of books published by a former open textbook publisher which includes over 60 textbooks, primarily in business subjects.

Of course, individuals write open textbooks for use in the higher education context as well. Several sites exist that catalog these individual contributions (and sometimes the institutional contributions as well). These sites include OER Commons Links to an external site. (use the advanced search to limit your search to textbooks), Open Textbook Store Links to an external site., and Open College Textbooks Links to an external site.. You can also use Google advanced search to find open textbooks - for example, search for "political science textbook" and restrict the search to openly licensed results.

In K-12

The primary institutional player in the K-12 open textbook space is the CK12 Foundation Links to an external site.. They publish dozens of textbooks, primarily in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) subjects. Other K-12 appropriate open textbooks can be found on the OER Commons Links to an external site. site (use the advanced search to limit your search to textbooks).

The Utah State Office of Education remixes CK12 textbooks, other openly licensed materials, and originally commissioned materials to support its Open Educational Resources Program Links to an external site., which includes secondary science textbooks as well as secondary math and language arts textbooks aligned to the Common Core State Standards.

The Utah Open Textbooks Links to an external site. (UTOT) project recently blogged about the cost of providing printed copies of open textbooks to Utah secondary science students. We found that CreateSpace Links to an external site., Amazon's print on demand service, can print our textbooks (8.5×11, B&W, paperback, 250 pages) for $3.85. Add $0.40 per book for shipping, and what we call "the $5 dollar textbook" is now actually a $4.25 textbook. Peer-reviewed research Links to an external site. into the educational effectiveness of these $5 textbooks indicates that students learn just as much from open textbooks as from expensive, commercial textbooks.

UTOT also provides an interactive Open Textbook Cost Savings Calculator Links to an external site.. Play around with it to explore the cost savings possible with open textbooks. Make sure to click and drag the underlined links in the narrative.