Openstax Free Digital Textbooks And Teaching Tools

Leo Migdal

-Oct 27, 2025, 2:38 AM

openstax free digital textbooks and teaching tools

A leader in the Open Educational Resource (OER) movement, OpenStax provides free textbooks to millions of students worldwide. Here’s how OpenStax works, who can use it and what its future holds. OpenStax publishes free peer-reviewed, open-licensed college and high school textbooks covering subjects like math, science, social sciences, humanities and business. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose mission is to “improve educational access and learning for everyone,” the Rice University initiative is supported by donors like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Hewlett Foundation. All OpenStax textbooks are free in PDF and HTML formats, with Kindle, iBook and print versions available at low costs. Many offer interactive features like highlights, notes and the ability to create study guides.

Faculty-only resources like test banks often accompany the books, and instructors can remix and adapt the content for their courses. OpenStax offers free textbooks for college and high school courses. They are a nonprofit initiative at Rice University. With open licensing, rigorous peer review, and multiple formats – including PDF, print, webview, and audio – OpenStax makes learning more affordable and accessible. Yes. All OpenStax textbooks are free to read online and to download as PDFs.

Optional print editions are offered at low cost. Audileo’s audio versions have free and paid options. OpenStax collaborates with educators to develop textbooks aligned to standard curricula. Students and instructors can access or download these resources anytime without a login. Yes. The OpenStax Reader app lets you read, highlight, and take notes offline on iOS and Android devices.

OpenStax textbooks are available as audiobooks through Audileo, an official technology partner. Stream directly or download via platforms like Spotify, Hoopla, Audiobooks.com, and many more. OpenStax is an educational nonprofit initiative of Rice University. We are the world's largest publisher of free, open education resources (OER). Trusted by 70% of US colleges and universities, OpenStax saved students $2.9 billion in education costs since 2012. All of this important work serves our commitment to building a future where each and every student has access to the tools they need to achieve their educational dreams.

OpenStax, founded in 2012, is an initiative by Rice University that provides free, peer-reviewed, high-quality textbooks for students and educators. Originally part of the Connexions project, OpenStax's goal is to improve access to education by making resources more affordable. They offer a wide range of textbooks across disciplines, available in digital formats at no cost, and print versions at low prices. OpenStax also partners with educational institutions and technology providers to enhance learning experiences through innovative teaching tools and personalized learning platforms. OpenStax provides free, peer-reviewed digital textbooks with the following specifications: Despite being recognized as a human right, there are still plenty of obstacles to accessing education and knowledge in the U.S.

and around the globe — including the high cost of textbooks. Though they were once an undisputed mainstay, more and more K-12 schools are turning away from using textbooks and spending funding on digital tools such as Chromebooks and tablets for their students. On the higher education side, students pay an average of around $1,200 a year for course materials, just under $1,000 of which goes toward textbooks, according to data from the National Center for Education... The Education Data Initiative found that 65% of college students opted not to buy textbooks due to their cost. Add it all together, and the often-prohibitive cost of textbooks, along with the rise of numerous online information sources that may or may not be reliable, especially in the age of AI, pose a... One nonprofit that has been making headway in addressing the issue is OpenStax, and it’s drawn in support from an impressive array of major funders, with the giving vehicles of top billionaire donors well...

Based at Rice University, OpenStax offers free, peer-reviewed digital textbooks for K-12 and college students, as well as a range of other educational tools to expand universal access to knowledge. OpenStax uses what it calls a “robust content development process,” working in partnership with institutions, instructors, researchers, students, authors and technologists to create textbooks that both meet the needs of modern classrooms and reflect... Founded in 1999 by Richard G. Baraniuk, who is the C. Sidney Burrus professor of electrical and computer engineering at Rice University, OpenStax began as an Open Educational Resources (OER) repository named Connexions, which sought to make educational curricula available for everyone to share, use... According to OpenStax, Baraniuk, who serves as OpenStax’s director, saw firsthand “the frustrations of his colleagues grappling with the financial burden of education on students.

He believed that there had to be a more efficient and accessible way to teach and learn.” As textbook prices skyrocketed during the Great Recession, OpenStax began to publish its own peer-reviewed textbooks, free of charge. Along with its predecessor Connexions, OpenStax is one of the pioneers behind the budding OER movement to increase universal access to knowledge, a movement that has since grown exponentially. OER refers to educational materials that are freely available to use, edit, adapt, share and modify to fit the needs of every student. The benefits of OER are numerous. Not only are they cost-effective, they can significantly increase access to education around the globe, instructors can adapt their content to suit the needs of their students, and they can open up knowledge to...

Surging textbook costs are more than an affordability crisis — they’re an equity and access issue. As an Oregon State University faculty member, you can better support Oregon State students by choosing open educational resources in the place of traditional textbooks. Explore the collections and search tools below to get started. OSU faculty regularly publish and contribute to open educational resources. This includes open textbooks as well as other open-source media and course materials. OSU Open TextbooksExplore a vast collection of open textbooks published by OSU faculty in collaboration with OSU's Open Educational Resources Unit (OERU).Intro to PermacultureA highly interactive public education project, developed at Oregon State, that...

These learning objects were created by OSU faculty in collaboration with the OERU. Institutions around the world host collections of OER that are freely available for faculty to use or adapt. Below are some well-known and well-vetted collections to explore.

Openstax Free Digital Textbooks And Teaching Tools

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