How open source textbooks are reducing the cost of college

Over the past 10 years, the cost of textbooks in the US has increased by 88%. This has contributed to more than $1 trillion in total student loan debt, which Americans are struggling pay back.

Now university systems are turning to a powerful cost-savings tool: open source.

The University of Maryland is giving out grants to "faculty who are adopting, adapting or scaling the use of OER [open educational resources] in Fall 2017 through high-enrollment courses where quality OER exists."

You can browse some of the wide array of open source computer science textbooks here.

And you can read more about the open source textbook movement in higher education here (2 minute read)

Here are three other links worth your time:

SEO Secrets: Reverse-Engineering Google's Algorithm (15 minute read)
How the Domain Name System (DNS) works and how you can make it better (8 minute read)
How to leverage Local Storage to build lightning-fast apps (8 minute read)

Thought of the day:

"A pinch of probability is worth a pound of perhaps." — James Thurber

Image of the day:

Google ads look more like normal search results every year. 55% of Google users don't even realize they're clicking on ads. Image credit: Search Engine Land.