General
What is OpenIntro?
OpenIntro is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that is independently operated. While we are not part of any college or university, we frequently partner with faculty to develop and test resources, because most of the people who use our books are in courses at such schools.
What makes OpenIntro different than other publishers?
We work to ensure our resources are high-quality yet also accessible. For example, all of our textbooks are free in PDF and affordable in print, and they are used by tens of thousands of students each year. And we can do this sustainably with only a very modest margin on our books. As a nonprofit, we have no shareholders to enrich, allowing us to truly focus on our education mission
How can a nonprofit beat the quality of Big Publishers?
When you reach out to OpenIntro, you reach the people who create the products, not a sales person (though we could afford one if we wanted). We're close to every aspect of this project, which allows us to improve our resources faster, shift more effectively based on feedback, and grow fast without a marketing team. We may not be a Big Publisher, but bigger in this case is not better -- it's just more expensive, which makes price a bad measure of quality in this space. Not to mention that there are fundamental reasons why free books are better than expensive ones.
Resources
How are OpenIntro resources tested?
Textbooks and other resources are first piloted in a 1-3 courses, then they are released after bugs are worked out. We also iterate as more feedback comes in, and our books have all now been through significant testing in hundreds of courses, from Edmonds Community College in Washington to Princeton University in New Jersey to the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, India. The feedback we continue to receive from students and teachers help us constantly improve the textbook and our other resources -- and fix typos far faster than any traditional publisher!
Is OpenIntro expanding into new subjects?
Yes, albeit slowly. We are piloting a program where we offer support to a select set of open-source textbooks in subjects beyond Statistics. If all goes well, we'll continue the expansion!
Can I get access to even-numbered exercise solutions?
Verified Teachers have full access to exercise solutions. Beyond this set of people, we do not currently offer access, without exception. The reason is that many teachers use these exercises as graded homework, which makes it important for us to restrict access to the solutions. We encourage teachers to apply for Verification. Additional considerations may be found in this post.
Contributing
How can teachers and others get involved?
We have a set of ongoing and future projects for Statistics outlined on this page. Please check these projects out and follow the corresponding links if you're interested in getting involved!
If I buy an OpenIntro textbook, does it help the project?
In general, any purchases of textbooks published by OpenIntro result in some royalty for OpenIntro, which helps further the project's mission of making educational products that are free, transparent, and lower barriers to education. We provide a breakdown of royalties and how they are distributed in this blog post.
For textbooks in our Partner Program, purchases through Leanpub generally support OpenIntro's work to help promote usage of these textbooks. Any paperback royalties for these Partner Program textbooks are very modest, and those paperback royalties remain with the corresponding author(s). In general, we do think it is reasonable and appropriate for authors to have a way to make some modest royalty from the immense amount of time and care they've put into making these high-quality yet affordable textbooks.
How can I contribute to the open-source movement?
First and foremost, use open-source resources and provide feedback to help those resources improve. Second, be an advocate for open-source resources by letting others know those resources you find useful and the extra benefits over expensive alternatives: free and perpetual access for all students before, during, and after the course.
I have an open-source textbook. Will OpenIntro publish it?
To start, check out the Authors page. In short, we are exploring options at this time, and at minimum we can help connect you with our small community of OER authors. While we're unlikely to publish any new books immediately, we are also cataloging options, especially for existing OER textbooks that have undergone testing within multiple schools.