Have you heard of Open Source Textbooks?

Textbooks are essential for education. However, in recent times, more or less all textbooks have been published for revenue by big companies, keeping costs artificially high, restricting access, and subjecting content to hierarchical control. This trend may be shifting. Several attempts are being made to create Open Source Textbooks on a wide range of subjects, collaboratively built, translated into a number of languages and accessible freely to everyone. In the current financial scenario, students are already under the burden of huge debt in form of student loans and financial aid. Open source textbooks are a real help for all such students because now they don’t have pay additional amount to purchase expensive books.

Open-source textbooks, which are often written by retired teachers or groups of teachers, are starting to gain in popularity, according to The New York Times. However, New York Times also says that the movement has also been slow going.

The idea behind open textbooks began with people frustrated with the industry. During the last couple of years, groups of the software world all over the country have adopted the open source agenda and begun funding open source books. Professionals, often including retired lecturers or groups of educators, write these books and permit everyone to distribute them in digital, printed or audio formats. Educational institutions can reorganize the contents of the books to go well with their requirements and needs.

California as well as Texas leads the market for textbooks used in pre-school playgroup to high school, and publishers do whatever they can to act according to these states’ needs and lock in their millions of students for years.

Both states have lately started processes that will let open source textbooks begin making their way through the difficult authorization procedure. Previous year, Texas placed a regulation encouraging the use of open, digital texts and is going through the material that might be utilized in educational institutions.

There is an enormous financial prospect in outflanking the conventional textbook producers. Students can pay $30 for a ‘black and white’ version to be printed on order, or $60 for a colored version, or they can purchase an audio copy.

Publishers have begun de-emphasizing the textbook for selling a package of supporting supplies such as teaching aids and guidance. In addition, companies have formed internal start-ups to make efficient use of technology and capture for themselves some of the rising online business.

They are acting in response which is almost in the similar way conventional software producers did when open source first appeared, by attempting to offer package subscription services with a main item that has been undercut.