College and Career Readiness Instructor Resources

NC LIVE, North Carolina’s library cooperative, is launching a statewide initiative called Open Education North Carolina to curate open textbooks for the most-frequently taught courses at North Carolina’s colleges and universities. In the first two years of the initiative, NC LIVE and its partners will assess and select open textbooks for 30 courses, saving students approximately $1.5 million dollars.

Every North Carolina student is required to take general education courses like Psychology, Sociology, Public Speaking, Statistics, and Expository Writing, making these courses a top priority. “The potential savings to students are staggering,” explained Rob Ross, Executive Director of NC LIVE. “Imagine replacing a commercial textbook for just one required course. About 80,000 students took General Psychology last year in North Carolina. At $125 per book, that’s $10 million dollars that students don’t need to be paying.”

The financial pressure of tuition, fees, room and board can make it difficult or impossible for students to afford expensive commercial textbooks. Many students attempt to share a textbook, buy an outdated edition, or simply go without, jeopardizing their chances of performing well in class. “Community colleges are focused on lowering barriers to higher education access, and Open Education North Carolina addresses one of those barriers – cost,” said Peter Hans, President of the NC Community College System. “This effort will lower costs while upholding the standards of quality that students expect.”

The Open Education North Carolina initiative is partially supported by grant funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the federal Library Services and Technology Act as administered by the State Library of North Carolina, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources (IMLS grant number LS-00-18-0034-18).