Open Education

Students are powerful voices when advocating for open education. The rising costs of tuition, fees, and textbooks impact students directly. By telling your stories, you can make compelling arguments for open education at your institution. For example:

• University of British Columbia students helped advocate for the adoption of an open textbook for an introductory physics course, saving students $90,000 in one semester.
• Students at universities throughout North American share stories on Twitter and Instagram using the #textbookbroke hashtag, documenting the real costs of textbooks. (see College Students Are Using Twitter To Protest Ridiculously High Textbook Costs).
• The Association of Big 10 Students passed a resolution supporting action to make textbooks more affordable.
• One of Student PIRGs primary campaigns is Make Textbooks Affordable, releasing reports research reports documenting the problems and harms with traditional textbooks and why open textbooks are the solution. A 2016 report, Covering the Cost, shows that 5.2 million U.S. undergraduate students spend a total of $1.5 billion dollars of financial aid on textbooks every semester, or $3 billion per year.