College students and instructors are rushing to adopt the first free textbooks from upstart publisher OpenStax College. The Rice University-based publisher said it expects to save students at least $1 million this fall after 13,000 of its physics and sociology textbooks were ordered or downloaded in their first 10 weeks on the market.

“Our first two titles will save students more money in one semester than they cost to develop,” said Rice engineering professor Richard Baraniuk, OpenStax College’s founder and director. “We’re well on our way to our five-year goal of saving 1 million college students $95 million.”

OpenStax College launched in February with a philanthropic model to offer free textbooks for the most heavily attended college courses in the nation. Baraniuk said more than 50,000 online users have viewed the first two titles — College Physics and Introduction to Sociology — since they were published in June. The books also have been downloaded nearly 7,000 times, and instructors at 55 colleges have adopted the books for fall classes.

Read full story at Rice News