• Browse the collection of over 2,200 Open Textbooks ]
• Find the Open Textbook right for you and your students and then blend it with other MERLOT materials within your own MERLOT Personal Collection.  
• Students can create and share their own Personal Collections of open learning materials as well.
• Contribute your comments and evaluations of open textbooks so others can benefit from your experience and expertise? It’s easy!
• Writing an Open Textbook?   Use MERLOT to market it!  Contribute it to the MERLOT Open Textbook Collection.

What are Open Textbooks?

Open textbooks are typically authored by faculty and published on the web with the support of universities, non-profit organizations, or new commercial companies. This new business model enables free online access to textbooks. Open textbooks are usually governed by Creative Commons licenses that enable users to download, customize, and/or print the textbook without expressed and prior written consent of the author.  New commercial companies provide free access to the textbook content online, while charging lower prices for print products and supplemental services.  The inclusion of advertisements can also be a condition of an Open Textbook.

What are the Benefits of Open Textbooks?

• For Students: The free cost can be a tremendous benefit to students, especially in difficult economic times.  

• For Faculty: The Open Textbook can also integrate multimedia that can make it more engaging for students’ learning and for effective for faculty teaching.   Some Open Textbooks can be customized by faculty so they can design the course content to their specific teaching goals.  

MERLOT's Open Textbook Initiative

MERLOT has one of the largest collections of open textbooks with thousands of free open textbooks in the collection. As with all MERLOT resources, the textbooks are searchable by topic. Additionally one can use the Advanced Search tool to find open textbooks by audience, format, license, etc.

Some advantages of the MERLOT textbook collection include:

• Largest known collection of thousands of free open textbooks.

• Some of the textbooks have MERLOT Peer Reviews.

• MERLOT Members may add comments that users can read.

• Learning Exercises can be added to the description of the textbook.

• MERLOT Members can put the textbook in a Personal Collection for easy access.

• Users can read descriptions as well as other information about the textbook such as author, suggested audience, licensing issues, technical requirements, etc.

How can I participate in MERLOT's Open Textbook Project?

• You can add open textbooks that you have found on the web or have developed into the MERLOT collection.  

• You can review Open Textbooks and add “Member Comments” at your convenience.   MERLOT has a very easy to use website one click and you’re ready to type your feedback.

• You can blend an Open Textbooks with other online learning materials from MERLOT to create a customized course.   MERLOT’s PERSONAL COLLECTIONS TOOL let’s you organize and annotate a collection of MERLOT resources in a personal way.

• You can participate in the MERLOT Peer Review process as a member of one of MERLOT’s Editorial Boards.  These discipline-based communities are involved in discovering and reviewing a variety of learning resources, including open textbooks.

Other Resources

• See how California State University is addressing the open textbook issue with their Affordable Learning Solutions project.

Revised -CS 9/4/12