Saving Pocketbooks With Open Textbooks

Traditional textbooks are expensive. Many students have to sacrifice other aspects of their lives in university and college to be able to buy their learning materials, and many can’t afford them at all.

Because Open Educational Resources are digitally accessible, they can be shared with students for free. For those that prefer print copies, OERs are available to print-on-demand or order at a fraction of the cost of commercial books.

When you adopt an open textbook, you’re saving students money, one dollar (and one open resource) at a time.

Approximate Student Savings Around the Country

Yukon
$13,000

Alberta
$482,000

Maritimes
$18,000

British Columbia
$26,110,000

Saskatchewan
$4,000,000

Ontario
$12,030,000

Approximate Student Savings Around the Country

How You Can Help

Whether you’re new to open education or a longtime champion of the cause, you can make a significant contribution to post-secondary education by incorporating an open resource into your courses. Take a look through our open collections or reach out to us for suggestions from the broader open education world.

And when you find something that works, we’d love a chance to celebrate your work. Whether it’s an ancillary piece or full-fledged textbook, please fill us in so we can add your contributions to our statistics and further advocate for open education’s impact on students in the province.