College students shell out hundreds of dollars on textbooks every year. The average price of a new textbook was $68 in 2012, according to the National Association of College Stores, and the College Board suggests students budget between $1,225 and $1,328 a year for books and supplies. That can amount to as much as 40 percent of tuition for community college students, but there may be a way to chip away at that expense, a new report says.
Switching one of their dead-tree texts out for an open-source one—a book available for free online or to print at a minimal cost—saves students an average of $128 per course every semester, said the Student Public Interest Research Groups in a report (pdf) published Tuesday.
