Indiana State push ditches textbooks for open-access

Ditch the traditional textbooks.

Indiana State University is pushing for professors to instead use free online textbooks and tools — known as "open access" or "open educational" resources — to save students money.

As an affordability measure in the university's strategic plan, the open-access initiative has sidestepped an estimated $90,000 in textbook costs for about 700 students in its first year, said Heather Rayl, emerging technology librarian.

"The ultimate goal, of course, is to make college more affordable for students," she said, "and also hopefully in doing that make them more successful in their college career."

On its website, Indiana State estimates textbooks can cost students $800 to $1,200 each year. Financial aid and scholarships often help bring down the cost of tuition, but they can't always be used on books.

Many universities encourage the use of electronic textbooks, which can be cheaper than traditional ones. But open access versions are completely free.

Institutions are increasingly taking aim at reducing the price of college degrees. Today, Purdue University announced a partnership with Amazon that's projected to save students 30 percent on textbooks — an amount that the university said could add up to $6 million per year.

Indiana State offers a $3,000 one-time stipend to professors who convert their classes to using all free materials, Rayl said. Instructors have to find and vet the resources, which she notes can be a time-consuming process.

There's a wealth of free materials online, Rayl said, and it's growing with the rising popularity of publishing on open-access sites such as PLOS (the Public Library of Science) or Rice University's OpenStax College. Authors trade the cache of having something published in a known journal for making their work more widely available.

Open-access also makes it easier for professors to pick and choose selections from textbook or adapt them for their own use, Rayl said.

The pilot is growing, she said, with more than a dozen faculty members participating.

"Textbooks are like this after-thought that you have to scrounge to pay for," Rayl said. "If we can save students even $100, $200 a semester, I think that's still a success. Because that money is still in their pocket — they can use it to drive home to their families or buy groceries that week. It's a significant amount of students' money."

Call Star reporter Stephanie Wang at (317) 444-6184. Follow her on Twitter: @stephaniewang.