Open Source Textbooks
Open source textbooks save students money! Over the past 15 years, the cost of university textbooks has increased more than four times the rate of inflation. As students, we spend as much as $500 to $1000 on textbooks and other course materials.
The average university graduate in Canada is left with a debt amounting to $25, 000. While high tuition fees are the main reason for this debt, textbooks also play a role in increasing debt for us students and making university education inaccessible.
Resources
The Central Student Association asked professors to look into the feasibility of open source, peer-reviewed textbooks being used for subjects they teach. Below is a list of links to Open Source Textbooks and Journals students and professors at the University of Guelph can use free of charge:
- BC Campus: The British Colombia provincial government has a collection of open textbooks aligned with the top 40 highest-enrolled subject areas in the province
- OpenStax College: Provides free, peer-reviewed textbooks
- Open Textbook Library: Hosted by the University of Minnesota, and provides a catalogue of 150 open textbooks covering Business, Accounting, IT, Economics, Math, Humanities, Law, Math & Statistics, Natural, Physical and Social Sciences
- DOAJ: Directory to Open Access Journals.
→ For more websites that provide open source textbooks, check out BC Campus' Where to Find Open Textbooks list.