The University System of Maryland designed the Maryland Open-Source Textbook (MOST) Initiative to evaluate the feasibility of using online materials instead of printed books to ease the cost of purchasing multiple textbooks each year.
The voluntary pilot, which was conducted during the spring 2014 semester, involved 11 faculty members at six colleges in Maryland: the College Park campus, the University of Baltimore, Bowie State University, Coppin State University, and two institutions not in the state university system: Chesapeake College on the Eastern Shore and St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Each professor assigned open-source online materials for at least one course, together reaching about 1,100 students.
The majority of participating students and faculty reported an overall positive experience and said they’d work with open-source materials again, according to the system’s recent review of the program, which was launched in collaboration with Lumen Learning LLC, an Oregon-based provider of open-source educational materials.
Students saved a cumulative $130,000 in textbook costs, based on the prices of books that would have been assigned for those 11 courses.
“Higher education needs to be more efficient at handling resources and course materials,” said Zachary McGee, a senior at Towson University and president of the University System of Maryland Student Council, which developed the idea for the MOST Initiative. “And I think this is the answer.”
University system officials are now working to increase faculty participation in the program and are discussing the possibility of creating a Maryland-based repository of open-source materials.
