Nicole Finkbeiner, Associate Director of Institutional Relationships presents the OpenStax Ecosystem to CCCOER Community.

1. OpenStax
Rice University
Access. The future of education.
Nicole Finkbeiner,Associate Director,Institutional Relations
nicolef@rice.edu,@nfinkbeiner,@openstax

2. Rice
University
Reports to the
President’s office
501(c)(3)
Nonprofit
Money invested back
into the content
Dr. Richard
Baraniuk
Founded by a Rice
faculty member
31 books
Published
since 2012
What is OpenStax?

3. Our nonprofit
mission
Increase access to high-quality open
educational content
Provide students financial relief
Increase academic freedom and
flexibility for faculty
Improve completion rates and reduce
time to graduation by reducing
financial barriers presented by high-
cost materials

4. Grant funding
Laura and John Arnold Foundation
Arthur and Carlyse Ciocca Charitable Foundation
Ann and John Doerr
Bill & Melina Gates Foundation
Girard Foundation
Google Inc.
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
The Calvin K. Kazanjian Economics Foundation
The Maxfield Foundation
Michelson 20MM Foundation
The Open Society Foundations
Brian D. Patterson USA-International Foundation
The Bill and Stephanie Sick Foundation
• New titles we currentlydon’t have
(payall authors, reviewers, editors,
etc.)
• Teaching &learning academic
research
• New initiatives suchasTutor

5. Sustainability
funding
Technology partners (homework,
courseware, etc.)
Small amount from each print copy sale
No sales reps
No comp copies
No fancy parties or free food
• Errata&industry updates to
current titles
• New editions &revisions tocurrent
titles

6. Why technology
partners?
Faculty feedback:
• “I’m not going to consider OER unless I
know it will be regularly updated.”
• ”I need a technology partner”
• “I like the one I have, can I keep it and just
switch books?”
• “I want choice, I don’t like being forced
into a particular platform or system.”
• “I’m often forced to choose between a
homework system I like from Publisher
A or a book I don’t like from Publisher
B.”
• “Technology is expensive, can you figure
out a way to drive-down costs there too?”

8. 1. Ecosystem partner leverages
OpenStax content to speed time
to market and to lower costs.
2. Ecosystem partners market
their solution to community,
encouraging faculty to adopt
OpenStax.
3. Community provide feedback to
ecosystem and partner to
improve products and services.
.
4. Ecosystem partners
provide MSFs (mission
support fees) based on sales
to maintain and improve the
library.

9. Ecosystem
partner model
results
• Over 12,000 adoptions, serving over 2
million students per year.
• Mission Support Fees (MSFs) have funded
revisions of:
• Sociology
• Biology
• Microeconomics
• Macroeconomics
• Three reviews are planned each year
based on MSF funding.
• All titles updated annually with MSF
funding.
• In 2018 the OpenStax library is self-
sustaining!