Open-source textbooks promise college cost cutting

A local project seeks to create low-cost open-source textbooks.

The average college student can pay upwards of $1,000 on textbooks in a single semester, many of them outdated or used. However, a new project taking place among several Valley colleges aims to cut that amount in half while offering the latest educational information by using reliable material gleaned from the Internet.

Dubbed Convergence 2, the project is an effort of the C6 (Central California Community Colleges Committed to Change Consortium) led by the West Hills Community College District. Recently representatives from several of the colleges came together for the second time since the initiative was announced, finding and vetting web content in order to compile text material that students could download directly to their phones or computers.

The content, which can also be printed out at campus libraries, is expected to be ready for students by the spring semester. “Right now, students pay $1,033 just for books for a semester and we’re looking at cutting that in half by using information online and creating our own textbook,” said Sherry Barragan, R.N., psychiatric technician instructor at West Hills Community College District. “It would then cost students about $10 instead of $250 for a book that is used for one semester. That one book would save California college students $70,000 a year collectively.” She added that the open source material, which is gleaned from non-copyrighted material online, is more up to date than a lot of current textbooks, like one on developmental disabilities that was written in 1982...