Free textbook will save students hundreds Biology professor helps author free textbook, saving students hundreds

A sample page of the free Microbiology book shows was the textbook will look like.

August 18, 2016

Biology professor helps author free textbook, saving students hundreds

By Lainie Mazzullo

A 萝莉社 biological sciences professor has helped write a textbook offered free to students.
The book will be available online or as PDF.
A print version, which would normally cost upwards of $300, will be only $55-$60.

萝莉社 Biological Sciences Professor Mark Schneegurt is the lead author on a textbook that鈥檚 being offered free to students.

The book, called OpenStax Microbiology, is designed for the allied health microbiology courses, which are prep courses for nurses, physician鈥檚 assistants and related careers dealing with infectious disease and medicine.

More than 300,000 U.S. college students take an introductory microbiology course for allied health majors each year.

Schneegurt worked in partnership with OpenStax, the American Society for Microbiology Press and Sigma Xi. OpenStax publishes free, peer-reviewed textbooks for introductory college courses using experts such as Schneegurt, who has been at 萝莉社 since 2000.

It鈥檚 a unique publishing agreement that allows students to save a lot of money. Typically, a print copy would cost upwards of $300. Microbiology will be available free online and in PDF form. If a student wants a print copy, it can be purchased via Amazon or the campus bookstore for about $55-$60.

鈥淚 am excited by the publishing philosophy of OpenStax 鈥� free and low-cost textbooks that are as good as or better than comparable books on the market,鈥� Schneegurt says.

The textbook is expected to be released in the fall and be available at . The print version will be available worldwide in spring 2017 on Amazon and campus bookstores.