About us
Knowledge should be shared
OpenStax is a nonprofit education initiative of Rice University. We make free, peer-reviewed materials that millions of students use, and we study what actually helps them learn.
cfd33a163471a48608bd552636fdfae599ed42be Student and instructor reviewing course material together 3 #F47541 right 12 #fff5f0 3 warm orange divider 3px center 3px 100%OUR STORY
Where we started
0 0 80%1999. OpenStax began as Connexions, a project built on a simple frustration: a textbook that cost $300 and taught the same thing as every other textbook on the shelf. Founder Richard G. Baraniuk set out to build something different: course materials written and owned by the community that used them, free for all.
2012. That project became OpenStax. The idea held, and the model of peer-reviewed, openly licensed textbooks at no cost to students worked. Colleges and high schools across the country started adopting them by the thousands.
Today. The library is the foundation. Assignable pairs that content with tools that help instructors teach and students learn. Research through SafeInsights, Rice's education research infrastructure, studies what actually helps students succeed, and feeds what we learn back into the work.
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Why we exist
Knowledge is a public good. One that gets more valuable when more people have access to it.
We publish free, peer-reviewed textbooks built to the same standard as any traditional publisher, then add the tools that help a student turn reading into real understanding. The student does the work. We build what makes it possible.
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Open knowledge,
stacked learning
Open. The belief that knowledge should be shared.
Stax. How we think about learning. It is cumulative and contextual: you grasp one idea, so the next has something to hold onto. We start with trusted content, then add the things that turn reading into learning — practice tools, research into how people learn through SafeInsights, and AI that helps a student reason through a problem. Each layer takes them deeper.
open knowledge stacked learning Decorative 0 0 0 left to bottom #FEF7F0 #F9FBEESee how the layers work. Explore the library, Assignable, and our research.
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The people behind OpenStax
The books are written and reviewed by educators from community colleges, public universities, land-grant schools, and research institutions across the country, then shared freely with learners around the world. Learning scientists study what helps students, and what they find goes back into the work. Technology partners carry the material into tools students already use. Philanthropy keeps the library free.
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Our global reach
OpenStax is used in classrooms across the U.S. and more than 160 countries. Find your school on the map.
"What you offer goes far beyond lessons and materials. You give people hope, opportunity, and a chance to believe in a better future. Thank you for believing that knowledge should be shared."
Zin Min Oo
University of the People
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The library is free to read today
Every textbook in our library is free to read online or download as a PDF. Want a print copy? Order one at a low cost.
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