Baraniuk to testify before congressional higher education committee Wednesday

David Ruth
713-348-6327
david@rice.edu

Rice’s Baraniuk to testify before congressional higher education committee Wednesday

HOUSTON – (Sept. 17, 2013) – Rice University professor Richard Baraniuk, founding director of the Rice-based free textbook publisher OpenStax College, will testify Sept. 18 at the U.S. House Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training hearing, “Keeping College Within Reach: Improving Access and Affordability Through Innovative Partnerships.” The hearing will be at 10 a.m. EDT in Room 2175 of the Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C.

WHO:             Richard Baraniuk, the Victor E. Cameron Professor of Engineering at Rice University. Baraniuk founded two Rice open-education initiatives, the Connexions Project in 1999 and OpenStax College in 2012.

WHAT:           Testimony about Rice’s OpenStax College and college affordability before U.S. House Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training.

WHEN:          10 a.m. EDT Wednesday, Sept. 18.

WHERE:        Room 2175, Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C. Baraniuk’s testimony will be available online at http://edworkforcehouse.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?event_id=10.

Rice’s OpenStax College provides free, peer-reviewed textbooks. Its growing catalog includes titles for five of the most-attended introductory college courses — physics, sociology, anatomy and both majors and nonmajors biology. OpenStax Colleges’ free books have been accessed online by more than 1.8 million people since June 2012.

In August, OpenStax College announced that 335 educational institutions on four continents are using OpenStax textbooks this school year, saving about 50,000 students $4.6 million.

Other witnesses before the committee include Jeffrey Docking, president of Adrian College; Paula Singer, president and chief executive officer of Laureate Global Products and Services in Baltimore; and Charles Lee Isbell Jr., professor and senior associate dean, College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology.

For more information, contact David Ruth, director of national media relations at Rice, at david@rice.edu or 713-348-6327.

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Previous OpenStax news releases:

OpenStax College saves students an estimated $3.7 million this year

Rice’s OpenStax College doubles down on free, online textbooks

Unlikely partners create innovative product for college biology

OpenStax College publishes first iBooks textbook

Follow Rice News and Media Relations on Twitter @RiceUNews.

OpenStax College launched in February 2012 with a venture philanthropic model to offer free, high-quality, peer-reviewed, full-color textbooks for the 25 most heavily attended college courses in the nation. Its books are free online for everyone. OpenStax College is a nonprofit initiative of Rice University and is made possible by the generous support of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the 20 Million Minds Foundation, the Maxfield Foundation, the Calvin K. Kazanjian Foundation and the Leon Lowenstein Foundation. For more information, visit http://openstaxcollege.org.