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University of Missouri works to reduce textbook costs

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While tuition rates are rising for University of Missouri system schools, textbook rates will soon be declining.
 
President of the University of Missouri System Mun Choi announced an initiative on Wednesday that will reduce the costs of textbooks system-wide. This is an effort to reduce the cost of attendance throughout the state and enhance learning for students.
 
The plan utilizes Open Educational Resources or OERs which makes class materials free to students online.
 
"Not only will our students be able to afford the textbooks but more importantly our faculty will be able to develop the course material with new innovations that are occurring," Choi said.
 
The UM system will also use AutoAccess, which is a program that makes textbooks and class materials available online at a lower cost.
 
"We believe the high cost of textbooks is a high burden for all of our students," Choi said.
 
Dallas Parker agrees. As a soon-to-be senior at Mizzou, she believes eBooks would save student a lot of money.
 
"My text books range anywhere from $700 to $1000 dollars a semester. So, I don't really use my textbooks, so that's absolutely ridiculous in my opinion. I think if they can find a way to make them eBooks, everyone has a computer or can get access to a computer," Parker said.
 
Some campuses are already using online resources to reduce the cost of textbooks for students. A working group is being formed for the system-wide initiative, and will review progress to help figure out how to share resources throughout the system.
 
Starting this summer, ten courses within the University of Missouri system will offer OER's.
 
It's expected to save students millions of dollars.