OpenStax, which expands access of K–12 and higher-education resources and research-informed educational tools, is celebrating its 25th anniversary as 2024 comes to a close, according to a news release. The educational initiative from Rice University has served almost 37 million students in 153 countries and saved students nearly $3 billion in educational costs since its launch in 1999. OpenStax launched in 1999 as Connexions, an OER (open educational resources) repository open to the public at large to find and piece together instructional materials. In 2012, the company transitioned to OpenStax and published its first open-license, peer-reviewed college textbook. And in August of this year, OpenStax began a partnership with Google to provide its resources to Google’s Gemini AI tool.
