Textbooks and the materials that often accompany them play a key role in the rising cost of a college education. Often, students who can't afford textbooks struggle with hard choices, from risking a bad grade to dropping courses - or school - altogether. In the last decade or so, multiple free alternatives to traditionally-published textbooks have emerged. Nowadays, there is little if any difference in quality between commercial textbooks and these free, open-access alternatives. One of the articles featured on this page even argues that open-access textbooks surpass traditional ones from an educational standpoint by highlighting the fact that knowledge is a social resource that is constructed by all and should be accessible to all.
