“The OpenStax Astronomy Book: Reaching Half a Million Readers, Creating a Community of Adopters” was the title of the Open Ed 2021 session presented by Andrew Fraknoi. The OpenStax Astronomy is a free textbook: http://openstax.org/details/astronomy OpenStax, Fraknoi mentioned, has the goal of creating free textbooks for college courses. Fraknoi was part of the project as a senior author along with Sidney Wolff and David Morrison. They got about seventy astronomy educators to help write and review the textbook. The book can be easily updated, as it is online. Fraknoi mentioned they are able to update almost every year. Fraknoi mentioned that this was the first time a professionally-edited free textbook in astronomy was made available. Fraknoi mentioned that between 250-300,000 students take introductory astronomy each year, with roughly one-third of them at community colleges. They spoke about how the language of the textbook was intentionally kept accessible and engaging with humor. When printed, the book is almost 1,200 pages long. It is also a modular book: Fraknoi said that you can use only chapters or chapter sections that fit the course/instructor. End-of-chapter materials include a glossary of key terms, review questions, thought-provoking discussion questions, calculation questions, collaborative group activities… In only a couple of years, over 1100 instructors have registered with OpenStax and used the textbook. Fraknoi mentioned that this has saved $40 million in textbook costs for students. In the instructor section, multiple-choice questions are available. They have partnered with Expert TA to create thousands of questions. This is a paid subscription. I did not know about Expert TA! Fraknoi also mentioned they have an OER Commons set of forty resources like lab manuals, guides, slides… and a multi-cultural astronomy guide. There are guides to help explore the careers and transformative work of black astronomers and women astronomers. The new OpenStax App is mobile-friendly and convenient. I love how Frankoi mentioned that this project is “bringing the universe (and the cost of textbooks) down to Earth.” I learned about OpenStax, Expert TA, and how rewarding creating an OER can be. Think about the impact this project has had!
