CSU Interactive Open Textbooks

California State University Academic Technologies partnered with Vital Source and developed vibrant interactive versions of Open Stax titles for faculty consideration and adoption. The goal is a more effective (than pdf format) resource at a very low cost designed to result in improved learning experiences and outcomes.

Open Stax is an initiative at Rice University that has created peer-reviewed open (free) textbooks in digital format. Aimed to compete with major publishers’ offerings, content is licensed under Creative Commons Attributions licenses and can be modified to suit different purposes by users.

Student benefits include highlighting and reviewing text easily; sharing notes with peers; end of chapter embedded quizzes; easy mobile device access; direct LMS links; interactive embedded vocabulary; complete accessibility for users with disabilities; standardized ereader; vibrant versus static pdf format.

Faculty benefits include viewing student interaction via an instructor dashboard; monitoring student progress throughout the materials; identifying students who may be falling behind; learning what content students find most relevant or most challenging; reviewing when students are readings and on what devices; monitoring assigned readings and learning who read before class; direct integration/linking into the LMS; improved student comprehension of content.

Prepared PowerPoint demonstrations and other support resources are available to stores by contacting the Auxiliary Bookstore Liaison at sehrhorn@calstate.edu