Explore Open Access Textbooks
Open access textbooks are openly-licensed digital textbooks that are offered for free online. Traditional textbooks use cumbersome copyright license restrictions, while open access textbook allow anyone to read, copy, distribute, or modify the content at no cost. Many universities around the United States have already developed initiatives to produce peer-reviewed open access textbooks for their students and the positive response has lead open access textbooks to be acknowledged as an affordable alternative to traditional learning materials.
Visit Orange Grove Texts Plus »
- Collaboration of University Press of Florida and Orange Grove Digital Repository
- Digital textbooks – free!
- Self-printed textbooks – free!
- “Print on demand” textbooks 40-60% of the cost compared to traditional textbooks
- Textbooks are developed with a Creative Commons copyright license (may be accessed at no cost) (www.creativecommons.org »)
- Titles from the University Press of Florida
- Browse for open access textbooks here: florida.theorangegrove.org »
- Or, watch a video of a South Florida Community College professor who uses eTextbooks here www.theorangegrove.org/OGTtest.htm »
The University of Florida has shown strong support for the Orange Grove by sponsoring authoring efforts that create open access textbooks for the digital repository:
- The UF Provost Joseph Glover and Math Department Chair Jed Keesling provided sponsorship for the university’s math department faculty to develop an open access textbook series called Concepts in Calculus.
- Concepts in Calculus I, which was piloted during the Spring of 2011 and officially adopted for the Fall 2011 semester, was used at the University of Florida by over 1,600 students with savings totaling over $50,000.
- Concepts in Calculus II and III were piloted during the Spring 2012 semester.
- The Concepts in Calculus series is edited and published by the University Press of Florida as part of the Orange Grove Text Plus collection with support from the FIPSE-funded Open Access Textbook project.
Other Open Access Textbooks
| Name of Repository | Description | Additional Info |
| MERLOT- Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning & Online Teaching | Peer reviewed learning materials | |
| OER Commons | Learning materials by level & subject | |
| Textbook Revolution | Student ran site of free educational materials | |
| D-Space | Content sharing across organizations and continents | |
| ALT Open Access Repository | Brings together information for learning about technology | |
| Resource Repository | Collection intended for educators and students | Global Health & Education |
| Open Doar-Open Access | Listing of University-specific repositories | |
| iBerry | Information and resources for students & educators | |
| Connexions | View & share educational materials | |
| Internet Archive | Internet library with websites, papers and books | |
| Wikiversity | Online portal of resources for all educational information | |
| Wikibooks | Open access textbooks you can edit to meet your content needs | |
| GEM | Learning and educational resources | |
| Ideas | Educator ideas separated by subject and educational level | |
| Kentucky Learning Depot | Course materials for Kentucky residents and guests to access | |
| The North Carolina Learning Object Repository | A place to collect and share learning materials | Only NC universities but others can view |
| FREE-Federal Resources for Educational Resources | Teaching and learning resources provided by federal agencies | |
| iTunes U | Audio and video collection of lecture materials accessible through iTunes | |
| EducaNext | Sharing knowledge of higher education | email registration required |
| Exploratorium | To create a web-based library for educators | |
| iLumina | Digital library of undergraduate teaching materials | Undergrad-only |
| The Learning Exchange | Online teaching resources for social work | Social work only |
| The Math Forum @ Drexel | Online guides to teaching & learning math | Math only, $15 student fee, @25 teacher fee |
| NSDL | Teaching guides for math, science and engineering | math, science, engineering only all levels |
| PBL Clearing House, Univ. of Delaware | Articles for teaching using problem based methods | Problem-based methods only |
| Apple Learning Exchange | Collection of resources to improve teaching methods | |
| CAREO | Extensive list of resources for educators | |
| Learning Objective Repository, Univ. of Mauritius | Learning materials for college level professors | |
| National Engineering Education Delivery System | Digital library of learning materials for educators | Engineering and math only |
| BookBoon | Collection of free downloadable e-textbooks | |
| Open CourseWare Initiative, MIT | Materials of 500 courses submitted by professors | MIT courseware only |
| The Orange Grove | Free online instruction for Florida professors |
