Open-License Textbooks Lower Costs

Students taking Business 101 have one less thing on their minds this semester. Professors in the eight sections teaching the introductory course have adopted an affordable, open-licensed textbook available free online.

"Exploring Business" by Karen Collins is published by Flat World Knowledge, a company that is transforming the way textbooks are being published and sold.

The Irvington, NY based commercial publisher offers its entire textbook catalog free online, with printed textbooks starting at just $30 for a black and white soft cover copy.

"Everyone knows that publishers are coming out with new editions way too often, they are making minimal changes, and they are jacking up the prices," said Catherine M. Roche, Associate Professor of business.

Informal surveys conducted by Roche last year found that students and professors are satisfied with the open textbook, and find its quality comparable to that of the more expensive, traditional books.

"Today's students want choices. They have choices in everything they do. So maybe they want to download a few chapters and put them on their iPod? Or perhaps they want to just print a chapter at a time," Roche said.

Flat World Knowledge offers different options for students to purchase their books.

Print versions are in color or black and white, and while a PDF can be downloaded for those who wish to print on their own, an eBook version is available to be used on an iPad or Kindle. Students can also purchase individual chapters and audiobooks.

They also a variety of study aids, such as flashcards, interactive quizzes and audio study guides.

Flat World Knowledge was founded in 2007 by former textbook publishing executives Jeff Shelstad and Eric Frank, who recognized the industry's troubles and decided to model their company with students in mind.

"It started with customers, and our feelings are that [students, faculty, and authors] ... are extremely dissatisfied with the current textbook market," said Frank, who serves as the company president.

According to Frank, the dissatisfaction runs across the board.

College students keep complaining about the rising costs of textbooks and the lack of choices they have. Faculty have to deal with continuously updated editions, and textbooks that are inflexible.

Authors are affected as well when their books aren't being sold, because students are renting, buying used, or pirating the books, with no royalties to be earned.

The company's model aims to solve these problems. Open textbooks are written by leading scholars, and undergo the same rigorous peer review process of ordinary textbooks.

But instead of a traditional copyright, the books are assigned an open Creative Commons license, which allows professors to edit and rearrange the text as they wish, or even add their own content to a book, as long as the work is properly attributed and is not then resold.

Once a professor "adopts" a textbook, either as is or edited, it's available either for free online, or it can be purchased as an economically priced soft cover textbook. The books are printed on-demand and sold directly to the student or campus bookstore.

According to the company, over 50% of students decide to purchase a printed textbook.

SUNY Rockland joins over 800 colleges and universities across the world who are using Flat World's 24 published titles. An additional 50 textbook titles are in the works.

Roche now makes sure to carefully consider the price of each textbook she assigns and tries to choose books that are affordable.

"The book by Karen Collins is basically the same book that other publishers would have charged a a lot of money for," Roche said. "The instruction resources are great as well. It's very well supported from an instructor's point of view, too."

While Flat World is working on expanding its textbook offerings, the publisher is also hard at work on developing the textbook of the future.

"These textbooks will take full advantage of technologies offered by devices like the iPad. It will be an interactive experience, offering embedded videos, personalized self assessment tools and ways for students to communicate and study together," said Frank.