LibreTexts vs Open Michigan
LibreTexts
libretexts.orgOpen Michigan
open.umich.eduSide by side
| Figure | LibreTexts | Open Michigan |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $104.17/mo | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 7 | 0 |
| Spec score · Open Educational Resource Platforms | 8.4 (#6) | 7.4 (#19) |
| Accessibility | LibreTexts states a goal for its platform and features to meet or exceed Revised Section 508 Standards and WCAG 2.1 AA, and says it audits accessibility at major development milestones. | Materials published after January 1, 2017 receive an accessibility review, and Open Michigan strives for WCAG 2.0 AA compliance; it cannot guarantee that referenced content is accessible. |
| Audience | LibreNet membership is open to institutions in K-12 and higher education, while individual educators can use LibreTexts to create, adapt, and host OER free of charge. | Open Michigan encourages scholars and students to share their work and describes its service as supporting the university community, Michigan residents, and the broader public. |
| Founded | 2008 | 2007 |
| Privacy | LibreTexts says it does not accept advertising or sell, rent, or lease user lists to third parties, and it describes collection of voluntarily provided personal information and anonymous Google Analytics demographics. | The privacy page says personally identifiable information is collected only when voluntarily provided, and contact information is not shared outside Open Michigan or its service providers unless legally required. |
| Purpose | LibreTexts is a nonprofit open education resource platform for creating, customizing, and sharing accessible, interactive textbooks, adaptive homework, and ancillary materials. | Open Michigan helps the University of Michigan community share research, teaching, and creative work with people beyond campus. |
| Support | LibreTexts offers free support tickets, monthly webinars, weekly office hours, and free Academy lessons. | The site directs visitors to a contact form or [email protected] for accessibility requests and says it will provide an alternate format promptly. |
Plans
LibreTexts
- ADAPTFree
- All-AccessFree
- Jupyter HubFree
- LibreTexts core platformFree
- The ForgeFree
- LibreNet Consortium (affiliate)$1,250 a year
- LibreNet Consortium (full)$2,500 a year
In their own words
LibreTexts
LibreTexts is a nonprofit open education platform for creating, adapting, and sharing accessible textbooks, homework, and related learning materials. Its libraries cover 17 subject fields and more than 2,000 textbooks, and instructors can remix chapters into custom books. Pages can include Jupyter Notebooks, ADAPT homework questions, 3D visualizations, and videos. ADAPT supports formative and summative assessment and includes a shared bank of more than 240,000 openly licensed elements. LibreTexts can be embedded in institutional learning management systems over a secure connection, with optional grade and assessment exchange. Guides cover importing books into Canvas, Moodle, and D2L, and also mention Blackboard. Book pages may provide PDF, EPUB, and editable downloads. Educators can create, adapt, and host open educational resources free of charge. The service is available on the web, Android, and iOS, with offline access and annotation tools. A free plan is listed, with paid pricing from $15/mo.
Open Michigan
Open Michigan is a University of Michigan initiative for sharing research, teaching and creative work beyond campus. It offers services and expertise in open educational resources, open data and open publications, and lets visitors search for material from within and outside the university for teaching and research. Its collection includes course materials, videos, lectures, student work and other educational resources from U-M faculty, students, staff and partner institutions. Nearly all of its educational resources are openly licensed for reuse under Creative Commons. The initiative can help publish syllabi, courses and learning modules, promote educational resources, and make data publicly available. It describes open data as publicly available for use, reuse and distribution, and open access scholarship as available to read online for free. Open Michigan is a partnership of the University Library and Health Information Technology and Services, and began in 2007. It notes that older resources may not work well with screen readers and many videos lack sufficient captions; remediation is underway. Hosted content published after January 1, 2017 receives accessibility reviews, with a goal of WCAG 2.0 AA compliance.