Try B.C. Open Textbooks Collection, and do explore other repositories and collections. Some Open Textbooks contain supplemental or ancillary materials, such as test banks, quizzes, PowerPoint slides, videos, and so much more. Textbooks that include one or more ancillary resources in the B.C. Open Textbooks Collection are marked with an Ancillary Resources flag (BCcampus, 2019).
4 Reasons to use Open Textbooks
1. Textbook costs should not be a barrier to education. The price of textbooks has skyrocketed
more than three times the rate of inflation for decades. College students face steep price tags
that can top $200 per book, and K-12 schools use books many years out of date because
they are too expensive to replace.
Using OER solves this problem because the material is
free online, affordable in print, and can be saved forever. Resources that would otherwise
go to purchasing textbooks can be redirected toward technology, improving instruction, or
reducing debt.
2. Students learn more when they have access to quality materials. The rapidly rising cost
of textbooks in higher education has left many students without access to the materials they
need to succeed.
Studies show that 93% of students who use OER do as well or better than
those using traditional materials, since they have easy access to the content starting day one
of the course.
3. Technology holds boundless potential to improve teaching and learning. Open Education
ensures that teachers, learners and institutions can fully explore this potential. Imagine an
American History textbook with the latest news from the run-up to the 2018 election, or a math
tutorial that incorporates local landmarks into word problems.
Imagine a lecture attended by
hundreds of thousands of people across the globe, or a peer-to-peer exchange between
Canadian students learning Mandarin with Chinese students learning English or French. All
of this and more is possible when the pathways for technology in education are fully open.
4. Better education means a better future. Education is the key to advancing society’s greatest
goals, from a building a strong economy to leading healthy lives. By increasing access to
education and creating a platform for more effective teaching and learning, Open Education
benefits us all (SPARC, 2018).