U. of Illinois professor creates open-source textbook

Walbert Castillo | USA TODAY

College students across the country have made the same complaint again and again: college is pricey.

In a study of more than 2,000 college students, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group found that the average American college student spends approximately $1,200 on books and supplies per year. The same study found that 65% of college students opt to not purchase textbooks because the prices are too high.

Recognizing the financial difficulties students have, Jonathan Tomkin, associate director of earth, society and environment at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, created a solution to high-priced textbooks.

With the help of professors at two other University of Illinois-affiliated schools -- the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Illinois at Springfield -- Tomkin created a stand alone “open-source” textbook called, "Sustainability: A Comprehensive Edition,” which is available online to students free of charge.

Sen. Dick Durban (D-Ill.) and the Department of Education awarded the University of Illinois a $150,000 one-year grant in 2012 to develop open-source textbooks in students’ curriculum. The grant aided the funding for Tomkin’s book, which provided a stipend to the contributing authors.

The online textbook is used for ESE 200: Earth System and ENSU 310: Renewable & Alternative Energy, both of which are taught by Tomkin. The 560-page book, which took more than a year to fully develop, features content on varying topics such as climate and global change and environmental and resource economics.



Related: Students break the bank to by their books

For students who prefer owning a hard copy of the book, Tomkin says bookstores on the UIUC campus offer printed versions on demand for about $25.

“We need to use the best practices in education by using technology as much as possible. I think electronic textbooks are part of that best practice,” says Tomkin. “Part of being efficient is not making things cost more, I think we should be using technology to make things cost less.”

Since open-source textbooks are freely available on the Internet, Tomkin says, hundreds of thousands of students -- including six universities -- have accessed his book online.

David Ernst, executive director of the Open Textbook Initiative and chief information officer of the College of Education at the University of Minnesota, created and manages Open Textbook Library, an online virtual library that gathers open-source textbooks, including Tomkin’s book.

With 170 total open-source textbooks and at least 1,500 views per day, Ernst says the traffic to the website increases with each passing semester.

Open-source textbooks allow users to share and edit content at their will. But one thing Tomkin says users have to take into consideration is that edited content must be attributed to the respective university involved and author(s) who contributed.

“Since I work at the University of Minnesota, I’ve been raising awareness about open-source textbooks to several faculty members and the students as well as the faculty have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars,” he says.

While open-source textbooks may provide a great solution for students hoping to save money, a limited number of professors are using this type of textbook.

Ernst raises awareness for the resource by traveling to numerous universities across the country and holding open-source textbook workshops.



Walbert Castillo is a student at University of Illinois at Champaign and a spring 2015 USA TODAY Collegiate Correspondent.

This story originally appeared on the USA TODAY College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.