Free College Textbooks

Did you know there's thousands of free college textbooks available online?  Textbooks on everything from classical literature to nanotechnology are available if you know where to look.

Why continue paying exhorbitant textbook prices that can rival tuition payments when you can get the same information for free?

I went to school with students who survived by photocopies of friend's textbooks, books shared by a number of students and a few provided copies in the campus library. One semester, I had the dubious honor of having the largest book bill among all the students attending my school. Since I've graduated, prices have only gotten higher.

Finding Free College Textbooks

My article open CourseWare discussed free online course materials which often include complete and free college textbooks for downloading.

That's right, college textbooks from some of the world's most prestigious colleges and universities for free! You might even find practice exercises (many with answers), practices tests and quizzes, glossaries, reading lists and interactive exercises, tutorials and games.

Are Free Online College Textbooks Better?

When I was in college in the late 1980s and early 1990s, very few professors wrote their own textbooks. Students often viewed them as egomaniacs who only presented their interpretation of the material. There's probably still some of that going on but the Internet and the open and free college textbook initiatives have truly changed the way information is presented.

Weight limitations (who wants to carry around campus an 850 page book?), printing costs or quickly evolving science are no longer an issue. Scholars and educators are free to write textbooks the way they think they should be written. In creating the Online Degree Discussion Free Online College Textbook List, I am finding more and more scholar authors describing their textbooks as revolutionary - their textbooks match how the material should be taught.

One online textbook has been criticized as being too long and repetitive; students rave about it. Important terms are explained each time it is used. Sure, that's a bit repetitive but what a great way to reinforce important concepts and make learning easier!

Web technology has changed textbooks forever. Pop-up definitions of key terms, hyperlinks between related material and more photos, diagrams and charts than they could ever put in a traditional print textbook are becoming the norm. Animations, full videos and wave files are being used to illustrate concepts and ideas. Instead of looking at a flat drawing of a molecule, students can look at a rotating, truly 3-D model of the molecular structure.

Open Source Textbooks & Other Collaborations

Many free college textbooks include writings from numerous scholars. Instead of having a traditional publishing house working on the material, students can now benefit from the very people who are working in the field, making new discoveries and have actually been in the front of a classroom.

Almost every online textbook we found was accompanied by an invitation to point out errors and omissions, invited contributions from other authors or were set up like Wikipedia where anyone could add to the text. A number of sites are hoping to become 'the' source in their field. Scholars from around the world are contributing the chapters and creating living texts with the goal of becoming a complete reference for students.

Years of course lecture notes are being turned into free college textbooks that often have direct input from students currently taking the class. Undergraduate, graduate and Ph.D. students are working side-by-side with their professors and visiting scholars to create materials for the students who follow.

Free Online Textbooks

Free online textbooks make great reference material. Extra textbooks are often the way to ace take home exams. Even advanced mathematics textbooks might just save your bacon. Sometimes all it takes is one more example with a slightly different explanation to understand a new concept.

Where are these free college textbooks? Many of the schools with open Courseware and online degree programs offer free online textbooks. College Professors, who always hoped to write their own textbook, are doing so and making their efforts available for free on their university homepages.

I know that I will never be able to list every free college textbooks that is available. I will however, continually be updating the list with new textbooks and removing the ones that are often being removed from the web when faculty members retire.

A Reminder About Copyright

Most of these free college textbooks are not copyright free. Classical literature is generally in the public domain due to its age but everything else will carry some sort of copyright restrictions. Check over the materials carefully. Most online textbooks are offered freely for personal use, some ask for donations and others require membership or payment to access. Many authors offer enhanced or pre-printed versions for substantially lower prices than traditional textbooks carry.

The Online Degree Discussion Free College Textbook List will focus on materials that are free to access and do not require subscriptions or other fees. In my mind, paid subscription sites are straying back into the commercialization of information and are contradictory to the spirit in which the textbooks were written.