Open Educational Resources (OER): Open Stax Video for beginners

If you’re assigning an OpenStax book in your course this semester, there are a few things you should know that will help you get ready to teach. Our books have multiple features and even come with free resources for instructors. In this blog post we’re going to walk you through the steps of getting started with your OpenStax textbook.

Setting up your instructor account

The first thing you’ll want to do as an OpenStax textbook adopter is create an instructor account. Creating an instructor account will grant you access to free instructor resources.

Creating an instructor account can be done in just a few easy steps. You can watch this video or follow the steps below to learn how to set up your account. Here’s what you need to do.

1. Go to openstax.org and click “Log in” in the top right corner.

2. Click on the “Sign up here” link.

3. On this page enter your role and the email provided by your institution.

4. Check your email for an email from OpenStax. It contains a PIN number that you can enter to finish setting up your account. *You may want to check your junk or spam folder if you don’t see the email initially.

5. Create your password. The password must be 8 characters long.

6. Complete your account by providing additional information that will help us verify your instructor status.

7. Our customer support team will manually verify your instructor status. Allow 3-4 business days for this process.

Getting familiar with the resources for your OpenStax book

There are a few things that you definitely want to know about OpenStax textbooks, if you’re teaching with one. First, our books come in a variety of formats, allowing students to choose the reading experience that best suits them or giving you the ability to select a format that will be best for your class. Second, we have free instructor resources for each of our textbooks. These resources vary by book, but include things like answer guides, PowerPoint slides, instructor’s manuals, and more. Our books also have supplemental student resources that vary by book. Finally, each of our books has different partner resources — low-cost technology tools developed by educational technology companies that we’ve partnered with.

If you want to learn more about the different resources offered for your book head over to the book's page on our website. You can watch this video to find out how to access each of the resources described above.

There are many different resources available for each OpenStax book. Here are just a few resources and pages you'll want to look at for the textbook you're using.

1. The “Book details” page will show the formats available for your students to access and read the book.

2. The “Instructor resources” page will show you which teaching resources are available for you. To get access to these resources, you’ll need to create a free instructor account.

3. The “Student resources” page hosts the supplemental learning resources available for the book you’ve selected.

4. The “Partner resources” page will display which educational technology tools are available at a low-cost to be paired with the book you’ve chosen.

Ordering print copies of the textbook for your campus bookstore

We’ve found that around 10 percent of students in classes using an OpenStax book prefer to have a print version in addition to, or instead of, a digital one. You can plan ahead for this by placing bulk orders of your textbook, which will be sent to your campus bookstore. The process for placing bulk orders is quick and straightforward. A step by step guide can be found here.

We know that there is so much to do when preparing for a successful course. We want to help make your experience using an OpenStax book as seamless as possible. We also shared a guide with what to include in your syllabus when using an OpenStax book, you can read the blog post here. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our Customer Support Team by sending an email to support@openstax.org.