Sacramento, U.S.A. – 20 Million Minds Foundation (20MM) and Highlighter.com, dedicated to reducing the cost of textbooks while increasing student engagement in the classroom, have partnered to produce a book for the upcoming Fall term.

Introduction to Sociology, the first student-faculty interactive textbook enhances student learning, allows students to highlight, annotate, comment, share and save portions of text for note-taking and referencing. The tool also allows faculty to publish free textbooks and other course materials through the HTML5 Reader while receiving analyses of the student learning experience with Highlighter.com’s tracking feature, showing which sections students find most interesting or where students might need further explanation and assistance.

“We are thrilled about this collaboration. By implementing Highlighter’s publishing platform in ourIntroduction to Sociology textbook students can enjoy the “social highlighting” experience with the capability to comment, question, share, and interact with the materials in a virtual classroom forum,” said Dean Florez, former California State Senator and President of the 20 Million Minds Foundation. “Students can also be grouped into smaller study groups which allows for greater peer interaction. The simplicity of Highlighter functions make it easy to use with all comments contextualized around the content.”

Highlights and comments can be made on PDF, ePUB, Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents. Instant messaging and posts on Facebook and Twitter show how many students are “talking to each other” and 20MM recognizes that embedding these discussions into one learning environment will provide for a better experience for both students and instructors.

“Instructors alike will be able to engage with ‘real time’ student commentary and evaluate student engagement,” said Josh Mullineaux, CEO and co-founder of Highlighter.com.

“Each instructor’s Highlighter account will allow them to view student progress using a range of course analytic tools to promote increased student comprehension, including quantifying student commentary and responses. We are excited to partner with a company that fully understands the cost crisis in higher education, as well as the quality crisis with OER textbooks. With the integration of Highlighter into 20MM‘s high-quality Sociology book, faculty and students will enjoy enhanced-OER teaching and learning experiences.”

The adoption of the Highlighter interactive social tool by faculty at institutions including Clemson University, California State University at Northridge, Highline Community College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Syracuse University, University of Berkeley, University of Notre Dame, andUniversity of Colorado, has resulted in enhanced and improved student experiences and learning outcomes.

“Highlighter has been a great addition to our teaching and learning materials,” said Melanie Cooper, a chemistry professor at Clemson University. “The ability to have students read and comment on the text and answer each other’s questions is invaluable.”

“Students are engaging with the course material in a way that is different than before. Since I implemented Highlighter Groups into my curriculum, students are coming to class knowing more than they knew previously,” said Michael Klymkowsky, a Biofundamentals Professor at the University of Colorado’s Bioscience Department.

Since the Introduction to Sociology book was made available on OpenStax College, it has been viewed more by more than 10,000 users.

Access the free 20MM Highlighter-ready book: www.20mm.org/OER.html.

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The 20 Million Minds Foundation (20MM) and SlugBooks.com have announced their partnership making course-level bookstore-to-online price comparisons mainstream with real-time pricing available on the non-profit’s website 20MM.org . The real-time pricing product moves significantly further than current efforts aimed at meeting recent federal requirements seeking to curb the escalating cost of college textbooks.

In 2008, Congress passed the HEOA— a groundbreaking federal law designed to tackle the rapidly rising cost of textbooks— directing colleges nationwide by requiring disclosure of college textbook costs for students during the registration process on their websites.

Most colleges are complying with Federal law by disclosing the new and used textbook costs offered at their own college bookstores –where inflated prices are discouraging students to continue their education and are forcing many to pick their courses by textbook cost and not necessary benefit toward their academic goals.

HEOA compliance technically discloses enough information for significant savings to occur, but for most students the ISBN and price information by itself is not actionable, so they continue to pay higher prices than necessary. 20MM has partnered with SlugBooks given their product is independent from main stakeholders hurting affordability in this space, including publishers and the bookstore.

Students are typically directed by their institutions to go to the campus bookstore in most cases, despite affordable online options. The Foundation’s initial beta price transparency initiative allows students to look through college courses when shopping for textbooks and compare prices between the college bookstore and online alternatives.

Dean Florez, President of 20MM pointed to student frustrations given the lack of transparency in college textbook pricing saying “College bookstores are complying with federal requirements when it comes to servicing students – and most allow students several options between purchasing from the bookstore new, used, rental or even digitally – but each of those purchasing options incorporates different economics.

These bookstore-provided options are rarely ever compared apples-to-apples with the prices of reputable online alternatives or free open source offerings. The 20MM textbook tool aims to bridge this gap, and exposes courses where savings are significant.”

David Miller, CEO of SlugBooks pointed out that 20MM and SlugBooks currently plan to expand the school offering to over 1,000 higher education campuses in time for the Fall term beginning later this year. “Between various online marketplaces and new OER materials, course materials are now more affordable than they ever have been.

The only problem is that students and professors both, in large part, are unaware how easy it is to save money online. Instructors will be able to use this tool to search for various classes at schools and get ideas for which books their peers are using, along with the various price points of those books at college bookstores to make sure students can purchase these adoptions at a fair price.”

“Upon its release, the 20MM Textbook Tool is already demonstrating that students are not being served well by our bookstores, especially at the community college level,” said Florez.

“In fact, we are already exposing predatory pricing schemes that publisher’s use, which include loose leaf, packaged and customized textbooks, for which there is no secondary marketplace online.”

“The product already provides valuable adoption insights at both the course and textbook level – professors can either browse courses at specific schools to see what books are being used, or they can search for books by ISBN/Title and see all of the schools and courses in our database that are using that same edition.

A lack of online marketplace availability for a specific ISBN can be a red flag that a given textbook is not an affordable option and alternatives should be considered. This tool gives professors a much needed price-check to truly control how their textbook adoption choices will affect students,” said Miller.

20MM and SlugBooks plan on building out the product offering to also double as an early adoption discovery tool for professors who will be able to compare traditional hardcopy textbooks, rentals, e-textbooks and growing open educational resource (OER) textbooks in a one-click comparison.

Florez went further and pointed out that at full buildout, 20MM plans to index over 15 million textbooks based on 10 years of adoption that will provide faculty a trusted roadmap and a easy one-click “kayak experience” that will provide adoption information, textbook ratings, and side-by-side comparisons among peers on campuses throughout the nation.

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Joined by students, educators, The Twenty Million Minds Foundation (20MM), and other supporters, California Senate President pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg announced proposed legislation to establish a 21st century project that could save California college students hundreds of millions of dollars a year in higher education costs.

At a time when higher education affordability is at the forefront of national debate, this legislation would create Open Educational Resources (OER) in California that give undergraduate students free access to textbooks for 50 lower-division courses. These books would be available via computers and mobile devices through a digital open source library, with a print version offered for around $20.

“There’s a clarion call from students and middle class families to make higher education more accessible and affordable,” said Steinberg. “Open source digital textbooks can bring real relief of nearly $1,000 a year to each college student.”

Dr. Barbara Illowsky of De Anza College has already authored one such textbook “Collaborative Statistics,” this interactive open digital textbook is provided free to students on Kno.com.

“Choosing to adopt the open digital textbook for my students spares them thousands of dollars in textbook expenses.” said Dr. Larry Green, Lake Tahoe Community College professor using Collaborative Statistics, ”and the book’s academic quality is comparable, if not better, than the pricey versions offered by publishers.”

Steinberg’s legislation would create a competitive “Request for Proposals” (RFP) process challenging others to develop high quality digital open source textbooks and related courseware. All would be placed under a “Creative Commons” license that allows for free access and faculty customization. To ensure materials meet the rigorous standards of college curricula, they would be reviewed and approved by subject matter experts.

Students also unveiled an online petition calling on legislators and faculty to support the creation and use of OER.

OER has been supported by educational foundations for nearly a decade now, and 20MM has been instrumental in promoting innovative strategies to lower book costs for college students. “You are in the midst of a very large announcement nationally,” said former Senate Majority Leader, now President of 20MM, Dean Florez, “Senator Steinberg is going to lead this nation and show every state it can be done.” The hope is that others will join in and “live by the Steinberg rule, provide it for under $20.”

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