SAN DIEGO - Some students in the San Diego Community College District may eventually be able to cut down on the high costs of textbooks.
The district announced a $975,000 federal grant Thursday made possible by Congressman Scott Peters, which will enable to the district to develop more courses that take advantage of Open Educational Resources (OER's).
"In our highest demand classes, our goal is to convert existing textbooks into Open Educational Resources and that would eliminate the textbook costs for our students, which is many cases fare exceeds the cost of their tuition," said SDCCD Chancellor Carlos Cortez.
Listen to the interview below:.
Currently, some 15 percent of the district's courses offer free textbooks and other resources, a percentage the district hopes to surpass with the latest round of funding.
Textbook prices have risen more than 800 percent since 1978, and students can spend an average of $1,200 on textbooks each semester.
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