When you head off to college, there are a lot of expenses you have to think about, such as tuition and textbooks. Well, put that last one back on the shelf. At San Jacinto College, administrators are working to lighten the load.
“Open Books is a relatively new initiative for the college. Our focus is on low and no-cost content,” says Niki Whiteside, vice president of educational technology at San Jacinto College. “We really started focusing on it in Spring 2017 and since then, the savings equals about $2.1 million for our students.”
The program encourages faculty to develop their own teaching materials and resources, which are all generated under a Creative Commons license.
“I’ve become a better professor by tailoring my own class to the exact needs of that classroom,” says Dr. Tyler Olivier.
He and more than 180 faculty members have worked with Open Books, which is available for 407 sections this semester alone.
“You’re removing a barrier on their pathway because they don’t have to worry about purchasing a textbook,” Olivier says.
McCade Fletcher, who is double-majoring in business management and marketing and taking 18 credit hours this semester, saved approximately $180 using the program instead of buying a textbook for his Financial Accounting class.
“The resources were very, very easy to understand,” he says. “I would use Open Books again if I had the option to.”
So would second-year student Amy Velazquez.
“The class that I’m in right now is Honors Biology. The textbook was supposed to cost around $170, but I got everything for free including resources, videos, flash cards,” she says.
For more information about San Jacinto College’s Open Books program, click here.
