OpenStax Biology Textbooks

OpenStax is part of Rice University, which is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable corporation. Our mission is to improve educational access and learning for everyone. We do this by publishing openly licensed books, developing and improving research-based courseware, establishing partnerships with educational resource companies, and more.

All texts are peer-reviewed; openly licensed; 100% FREE.

• Should you elect to adopt an OpenStax textbook for your course, the JSCC Libraries can assist in obtaining all instructor and student resources.
• Most textbooks come with the following instructor resources:
  • Blackboard Course Cartridge
  • Instructor Getting Started Guide
  • PowerPoint Lecture Slides which include images from the book, organized by chapter
  • Instructor Answer Guide to all end-of-chapter questions in the textbook
  • Test banks; testable images; supplemental test items
• Student resources include the following:
  • FREE access to the interactive, online version of the textbook
  • FREE downloadable PDF of the entire textbook
  • Student Solution Manual: solutions to a subset of problems and exercises in the text
  • Reading and Notetaking Guide
  • Time Management Guide

There are several options for providing content to your students:

• Import/install the associated Blackboard Course Cartridge [Valerie McCombs can assist.]
• Have the Libraries create an online version of the text by providing links to individual chapters and PDFs of individual chapters.  Students would have the option to view online and/or print chapters as needed.

Options for instructors:

• The Libraries can create an online repository for all lecture slides, test banks, solutions manuals, etc.
• The site will be password protected so that students cannot access the material.
• The Libraries can share folders of all content in OneDrive.