LibGuides: Free and Open Textbooks: Compare

Open vs. Traditional Textbooks

Traditional Textbooks vs. OER: What's the Same and What's Different?
Worksheet developed by Kirkwood Community College.
Opening the Curriculum: Open Education Resources in U.S. Higher Education, 2014
This report surveyed the opinions of faculty on Open Educational Resources and found that:
"Faculty judge the quality of OER to be roughly equivalent to that of traditional educational resources. Among faculty who do offer an opinion, three-quarters rank OER quality as the same as or better than traditional resources."

Chart showing faculty attitudes from Opening the Curriculum, 2014 report

Check out the links below to explore two open textbooks currently being used in NMC classes. Open textbooks are always free online, so the links take you right to the book and you can start reading!

Intro to Psychology
History in the Making

Two comparable traditional textbooks are listed below. The links will take you to the Amazon shopping page.

Worth Publishers' Psychology
Bedford / St. Martin's American History