Open Textbooks

 In 2004 I was a freshman at the University of Texas at San Antonio. I wanted to feel the full experience of being in college, so I lived on campus in a dorm, enrolled in a full load of courses, and bought all brand new possessions including textbooks. I ended up tallying up a bill of over $8,000 in my one and only semester at UTSA.

Freshmen make that kind of mistake all the time, and I've certainly learned from my experience at UTSA. If I could go back, I would definitely spend my money more wisely. The number one place I could have saved money was textbooks. I naively believed that in order to get the best use out of my textbooks that I would need to buy brand new books for all five of my classes.

I ended up charging over $800 to my credit card just on brand new, plastic wrapped textbooks. I did not even use four of them once in any of my classes.

Transferring from a university to a community college obviously has significantly lowered my spending costs in nearly all ways. However, the one expenditure that has carried over is the price of textbooks.

I am happy that the national government has taken the initiative to make textbooks tax-free through the American Opportunity Credit, an expansion of the Hope Tax Credit. However, I think ACC should step in and help students alleviate the costs of textbooks.

Buying used is not enough. In a school of over 40,000 the chances of purchasing a used textbook in stores is pretty slim. Online is great, and you have numerous choices, but a lot of times you end up receiving your book well past the first day of classes.

The Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER) has helped community colleges all over the country, including nearby Houston Community College, gain access for their students to open textbooks.

ACC should become a member of CCCOER because it provides beneficial free educational resources for students and faculty.

The CCCOER's Community College Open Textbook Collaborative project by itself is fantastic. The project is funded by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation from July 2009 through June 2011 and focuses on increasing the number of free high-quality textbooks available online as alternatives to expensive printed textbooks sold by publishers, according to an Aug. 10 press release.

The collaborative also will train community college instructors in how to get the most out of free digital textbooks to meet the learning needs of their students according to the press release.

ACC students could benefit greatly from the collaborative as would the school itself.  Joining the organization helps the school continue to provide affordable quality education and best of all, being a member of the CCCOER is voluntary and free.