Open-Source Texts Take Root At Md. Colleges « CBS Baltimore

"An experiment with open-source online textbooks at several Maryland universities last semester yielded promising results, and officials are preparing to expand the program this fall. The University System of Maryland designed the Maryland Open-Source Textbook (MOST) Initiative to evaluate the feasibility of using online materials instead of printed books to ease the cost of purchasing multiple textbooks each year. The voluntary pilot, which was conducted during the spring 2014 semester, involved 11 faculty members at seven colleges in Maryland, including two non-university system schools. Each professor assigned open-source online materials for at least one course, together reaching about 1,100 students. The majority of participating students and faculty reported an overall positive experience and said they’d work with open-source materials again, according to the system’s recent review of the program, which was launched in collaboration with Lumen Learning LLC, an Oregon-based provider of open-source educational materials. Students saved a cumulative $130,000 in textbook costs, based on the prices of books that would have been assigned for those 11 courses ..."