SoylentNews

"gewg_" writes:

from the information-wants-to-be-free dept.

The Red Springs Citizen reports [redspringscitizen.com]

[Paul Flowers, PhD] has joined a revolution in academia that would change the way textbooks are published and delivered to students, drastically changing--or eliminating--expensive textbooks, which can cost more than $200.

A 26-year veteran of The University of North Carolina at Pembroke's Department of Chemistry and Physics, Flowers is lead author, or "content lead", of the textbook "Chemistry", which was published in March by OpenStax College. OpenStax is a nonprofit project of Rice University whose mission is to provide high-quality college texts in electronic format at no cost to students.

"Chemistry" boasts three senior contributors and 12 other contributors. It is a general chemistry textbook designed for a traditional two-semester introductory college course. OpenStax offers numerous other textbooks in what appears to be a growing national movement.

[...]In recent testimony before a U.S. Senate committee, OpenStax founder Richard Baraniuk testified: "We created OpenStax College to directly address the issue of affordability and access. In the short time they have been available, our books have been used millions of times online and at more than 360 institutions."

[...]"I was already familiar with OpenStax and was very impressed with the organization's mission and the quality of its textbooks, so the decision to accept an offer to serve as content lead was an easy one for me", said Flowers, who is a long-time proponent of open source products.

[...]The new rules of open [knowledge] textbook publishing also apply to compensation for authors. Flowers worked as a contractor on the book, which took about 18 months to complete. He took a flat fee with no royalties, further reducing costs.

Original Submission