When a team of educators in Oregon became sick and tired of their students being charged heaps of cash for college textbooks, they began making their own—and it has collectively saved their students more than $2.5 million.
Since Chemeketa Community College began writing and printing their own academic materials in 2015, they have collectively published 33 textbooks, all of which cost less than $40 apiece.
The Chemeketa Press textbooks are created as a collaboration between the college’s teachers and students through a rigorous revision process in order to ensure that the text covers all the necessary information while still being easy to understand and devoid of common “academic jargon”. Once completed, teachers can then use the textbook as an examples of their published writing—and pupils can benefit from comprehensive course material that has been co-edited by students for students.
