OpenStax, an educational initiative of Rice University, is celebrating 25 years of expanding access to research-informed educational tools and resources for learners and educators worldwide. Throughout its history, OpenStax has served 36.7 million students across 153 countries and has saved students over $2.9 billion in related education costs.
Thanks in part to the work of OpenStax, textbook prices began to drop in 2018. That trend generally continued as educator awareness of open educational resources (OER) increased or maintained in both higher education and K-12 environments.
Through various partnerships, OpenStax continues to break down barriers to learning. In August, OpenStax partnered with Google, so its resources could be discovered, searched and referenced within the Google Gemini AI tool, akin to ChatGPT.
First launched as Connexions at Rice in 1999 as an OER repository for anyone anywhere to find and remix instructional materials, the transition to OpenStax officially occurred in 2012 with the publication of its first openly licensed, peer-reviewed college textbook.
“Celebrating 25 years of OpenStax is a testament to the power of open education and the collective commitment to making learning accessible to all,” said Richard Baraniuk, founder and director of OpenStax and SafeInsights and the C. Sidney Burrus Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice. “From the seeds of an idea to building a large library of OER and now to creating personalized, interactive learning tools that meet students where they are, we have been continually inspired to make an amazing education accessible to all.”
OpenStax has grown its library to include more than 70 comprehensive digital learning textbooks, each with standards-aligned, culturally relevant resources for students and instructors, leading to its recognition as the world’s largest OER publisher. The open licensing of these resources has inspired educators across 153 countries to create thousands of derivative versions of the titles to meet the needs of their local populations of learners.
After years of serving secondary students in addition to its core audience of higher education learners, the organization expanded to formally include a K-12 division in 2021 to enable it to better support learners to and through the college experience.
In response to the growing digitalization of education and the evolving needs of students and instructors, OpenStax has begun providing interactive learning technologies based on new AI tools. These technologies are designed through cutting-edge educational research gained through the work of SafeInsights to enhance its content and ensure efficacy toward student learning outcomes.
“We’re grateful to the faculty, schools, students, funders, authors, advocates and partners who have walked this path with us and helped make OpenStax what it is today,” said Daniel Williamson, managing director of OpenStax. “We pioneered an industry built around open resources, an industry that has been shown to drive innovation and increase competition, ultimately allowing for improved student access to high-quality learning materials. Our success is a reflection of the work done by the OpenStax team, the open education community and a vast ecosystem of partners and institutions.”
Looking ahead, OpenStax plans to continue building and refining research-informed learning technologies to provide students and educators with modern, personalized tools based on its peer-reviewed content.
To learn more about OpenStax’s mission and impact, visit openstax.org/impact.