The Future of Textbooks

Rice University's Connexions project is about to make it cheaper to attend college by publishing free textbooks online for five of the nation's most-attended undergraduate courses.

If Connexions' new OpenStax College captures even 10 percent of the market for these first five courses, 1 million college students in the United States will save in excess of $90 million over the next five years.

The initiative, which is backed by the Hewlett Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the 20 Million Minds Foundation and the Maxfield Foundation, will publish introductory physics and sociology books in March and three more titles this fall.