OpenStax

• OpenStax, a non-profit based out of Rice University, is among the leaders

in Open Educational Resources publishing 32 free digital textbooks across
several disciplines.  In 2017, OpenStax published the second edition of
their suite of economics textbooks that include a Principles of
Microeconomics text, a Principles of Macroeconomics text, and a
Principles of Economics text which combines the previous two.  The texts
are robust covering most of the topics that make up introductory
economics courses at a level comfortable for most community college
economics students. 
• Educator Resources
– Instructor resources available at OpenStax.org include basic PowerPoint lecture
notes, multiple test banks available as .docx files, and a solutions guide to in-text
questions.  The proliferation of the text has lead partners such as Lumen,
Knewton, Persuall, panOpen, and others to provide supplementary materials
conformed to the OpenStax text.  The CC BY license allows instructors to edit and
distribute the text to meet specific institutional or instructor goals. 
 OpenStax cont…
• “OpenStax textbooks are professionally written and vetted textbooks.  Even though they are free to
access, they are produced with great care and cost.  The funding for this open-textbook creation
project comes from grant donors, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the William and Flora
Hewlett Foundation, Google Inc., and many others.  The result are high-quality textbooks that are
thoroughly peer-reviewed. 
• These textbooks are available for free online and as a .pdf, or as a paid printed copy through
Amazon.com.  By living mainly online, the content can be updated much more frequently than can
traditional hard-bound textbooks.  This is especially useful for economics texts which make heavy use
of current data.  The openly-licensed textbooks also makes it easy to start a summer or short-term class
when very little lead time is available; students have immediate access to the required textbook.
• Private companies have also partnered with OpenStax to deliver the economics content, along with
other open content that the company may include, for homework and test solutions.  OpenStax is even
developing their own homework system called OpenStax Tutor (not yet available for Economics).  All of
these homework partners provide a low-cost alternative to the traditional high-cost textbook model
which can even prevent students from being able to afford a full load of classes.”
• Aaron’s Experience
 CORE-ECON
• CORE-Econ is an open-access platform built around a textbook “The Economy” designed for undergraduate
courses. In addition, there is a slimmed down version of the book intended for non-economics majors,
“Economics, Society, and Public Policy,” and problem sets using real data, “Doing Economics.”

• The CORE texts were designed by leading international economists who wanted to re-direct the
introductory economics sequence to use more modern tools such as a game theory and address the
important environmental and equity issues that students want to understand. Thus, the book follows a non-
standard approach, beginning each section with “big” questions integrating macro and micro topics.

• The production values in the book are high, including interactive graphs, new interviews with a diverse set
of modern economists, and reference to historical and institutional data not usually found in textbooks.
That said, the book uses relatively sophisticated vocabulary and assumes prior student knowledge about
world events. Thus, it may not be appropriate for community college courses. As an alternative, instructors
may want to consult the accompanying list of topics and links that could be drawn from this open source
book.

URL: www.core-econ.org