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This past Monday the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges announced the launch of the Open Course Library to help college students combat the rising cost of education by providing a new alternative for cheap textbooks. The state of Washington has put up $750,000 which was matched by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to make the library possible.  Open Course Library is hoping to provide cheap textbooks that will cost college students $30 or less.

The project has been broken into phases, with Monday’s launch of phase 1 featuring materials for 42 common courses including Introduction to Chemistry and Calculus I. Phase 2 will launch in the Spring of 2013 and will add another 39 courses to the library. A team of instructors, instructional designers and librarians developed and peer reviewed the current 42 available courses, using available open source materials to put together course materials that stay within the $30 limit.

The Student Public Interest Research Group (PIRGs) conducted an informal study which estimates that the Open Course Library could save students as much as $41.6 million on textbooks annually if adopted at all of Washington’s community and technical colleges. However, the 42 faculty course developers and their departments are estimated to save students $1.26 million by using these materials during the current school year, a full $80,000 more than the cost of creating the program. “These savings will not only help Washington’s students afford college, but clearly provide a tremendous return on the original investment,” said Nicole Allen, Textbook Advocate for the Student PIRGs.

This is one of several small steps being taken across the nation to make education more affordable for students with cheap textbooks and for such legislation to get funding in a time of staggering budget cuts is truly inspiring. Washington’s Open Course Library is leading a charge that I sincerely hope gains a lot more steam, and with the planned addition of 39 more courses in  2013, it seems the Library may continue to grow. The question now is whether or not this project can be repeated and gain state funding across other parts of the country.

Some common questions about the Open Course Library:

1. What is it? The Open Course Library is a collection of shareable course materials, including syllabi, course activities, readings, assessments.
2. Who is it created for? OCL materials are created for faculty to use in their instruction.
3. So what? Students in our colleges spend about 25% of their total education costs on textbooks (about $1200 per year for a full-time student). The Open Course Library eliminates expensive textbooks and presents faculty with high quality, adaptable course materials.
4. Is that all? Nope. There’s more. The Open Course Library may also increase completion rates by providing students with high quality, affordable educational materials. A study of student completion rates is in progress.
5. Is it designed to replace faculty or face-to-face instruction? The Open Course Library does not replace faculty or force them to teach online.
6. Who owns the courses? These course materials were created through an optional SBCTC grant, and the SBCTC Open Licensing Policy requires that all materials created through optional grants carry an open license. Unless otherwise noted, the Open Course Library materials are owned by SBCTC and freely shared to the world with a Creative Commons Attribution-only license (CC-BY).
7. How was it created? Faculty course designers were selected through a competitive bid process. They worked with instructional designers, librarians, and other support staff to create the courses. Before creating new content, faculty searched for exiting, high quality open educational resources, or OER. They then filled in the gaps with their own course materials.
8. How do faculty adopt a course? All curriculum developed for the Open Course Library is free, digital, and shareable. We invite faculty everywhere to explore, copy, customize, translate and adopt any and all course materials. We only ask that you give us credit somewhere in your course. Here’s an example: “[Portions of] or [This] course adapted from the Open Course Library of the Washington State Colleges. More information at http://opencourselibrary.org.” We also encourage you to use Creative Commons to openly license your course materials and share it with others.
9. Are there any costs? Some courses currently require the purchase of a low-cost textbook. If an OCL course requires the purchase of a textbook or other resource, the cost may not exceed $30 per student. All other materials are free and there is no cost to adopt the course.
10. How can I contribute to the Open Course Library? Adopt the materials, spread the word, and to share your own course materials online with a Creative Commons license.

Open Course Library is one of many alternatives for cheap textbooks for college students.

Monsoon helps expand the textbook rental market by allowing more people to rent textbooks online:

Unless you have been under a rock you are probably familiar with the huge boom in students who rent textbooks online and save lots of money getting the cheapest textbooks.  However, renting textbooks to students was limited to some large players like Chegg, CollegeBookRenter, BookRenter and now more and more vendors like Valore, eCampus, Textbooks.com and others.  However, Monsoon Commerce headquartered in Seattle, Washington, is a media selling management software that is about to blow the textbook rental marketplace wide open.

In July, Monsoon will allow online book sellers who join their new program to begin renting textbooks online to book buyers via Alibris, one of the leading online book selling marketplaces.  Monsoon says this new book rental program is rapidly filling with sellers preparing for the fall back to school season which is typically the largest of the year.  “Our sellers have wanted to participate in the rapidly growing textbook rental market,” said Brian Elliott, CEO of Monsoon Commerce. “We’re always looking to empower our sellers to grow their businesses, so we’re launching rentals on Alibris to drive even more sales to sellers during this back-to-school season and beyond. We’ll extend the book rental capabilities we’ve built to our Monsoon Commerce retail partners. It’s a win-win situation for all.”

A variety of estimates put the textbook rental market at 15% of total textbook sales, up from 4% in 2010 and growing rapidly.  Monsoon’s opening of the book rental market to more sellers will only help it grow, though students should probably only rent from marketplace sellers who have been in the business for awhile as they should hopefully be more reliable.  These new textbook rental prices will appear on RentScouter via our existing relationship with Alibris, so we will continue to bring you the best textbook rental price comparison so you get the cheapest textbooks possible.  Monsoon’s new program will also create a larger selection of used books for rent, so perhaps you just want to check out that artsy coffee table book before buying it online – now you can rent it and try it.

The market leader, by several metrics, remains Chegg to rent textbooks online, but quickly followed by companies like BookRenter.  Chegg was founded by several students at Iowa State University, some still with the companies, and others who have founded other companies like the creator of the Kno Tablet.  Chegg was initially modeled after Craiglist with a peer to peer textbook lending system which was soon replaced with a system more akin to the early Netflix model.  However, the marketplace to rent textbooks online is becoming more and more crowded with big players like Barnes&Noble entering the marketplace.

Rent Textbooks Online with Monsoon Commerce

Monsoon’s new program should create greater competition when you rent textbooks online providing more opportunities to find cheap textbooks.

Chegg, a leading provider of books for rent online, announced today it is expanding its digital services to college students in an ongoing effort to help campus students succeed in school.  Already a leader in renting textbooks for cheap, Chegg is now offering personalized digital educational tools which will help students everywhere save money, time and work more efficiently in college.

What are these new tools that Chegg is releasing?

We all know that Chegg acquired CourseRank awhile back, but today they released a new website showing off Cramster, the leading provider of homework help and solutions.  Already encompassing over 600 college campuses nationwide, the new site will allow course specific advice and homework help.  Chegg has been deploying its venture capital strategically over the last several months to bring about this inspiring change to the college world by giving students a new way to comprehensively organize their academic life.  Chegg hopes to have this service offered in over 1,000 schools by the end of 2011.  The new site is even offering a 14 day free trail of the service to college students who wish to get textbook specific solutions, homework help on any college subject, and a network of helpful experts to answer homework questions quickly.  Plus, Cramster is not just for college textbook answers, but high school book students, and anyone that might have a question about their homework.

With CourseRank, Chegg is offering detailed college specific information about college courses including grade distributions, student course reviews, a schedule builder, and of course textbook list to make renting textbooks for cheap quick and easy with Chegg or whichever textbook rental company offers you the best price.  Don’t forget to conduct a textbook rental price comparison at RentScouter today.  Check out the new site to get homework help or detailed college course information on your next classes.