Talk Abstract:
Tacoma Community College recently adopted Kathryn Kozak's "Statistics Using Technology" for its introduction to statics course. In addition to saving the students significant expense (under \$20 vs over \$190), we're finding it empowers a return to an ancient now nearly lost note-taking strategy: taking notes in the margin of the book. Of course that only works for the students who buy a paper copy, others download a free e-book on their laptop, tablet, or even on their smart phones.
Yes, the open-source texts often don't have the seductive inducements provided by the textbook publishers, but open source alternatives like WAMAP online assessment and instructor-shared slide sets can bridge the gap quite nicely.