OpenStax, the world's largest nonprofit publisher of open educational resources (OER) based at Rice University, announces a partnership with Google to expand access to relevant, trusted educational content. This partnership will enable the OpenStax library of more than 70 freely licensed, peer-reviewed textbooks to be discovered, searched, and referenced in Google Gemini. These materials will be available to Gemini users ages 18 and older in the United States starting in August 2024.
Gemini provides users with safe and secure access to chat using Google's generative artificial intelligence (AI) models. Gemini can be used as a collaborative thinking partner, helping students and teachers generate new ideas and providing tailored learning tools and guidance to learners of all levels. To enable OpenStax within Gemini, users can type a question like “@OpenStax explain the concept of supply and demand?” to get accurate answers based on OpenStax content.
This integration is consistent with OpenStax's commitment to democratizing knowledge by freely sharing high-quality OER for learning experiences that impact students and educators. As AI becomes increasingly important in digital learning environments, OpenStax considers accuracy, attribution, accessibility, and maintaining academic integrity as the key driving principles of the technology.
“OpenStax and Google share a unified, responsible vision for the use of AI in education,” said Richard Baraniuk, founder and director of OpenStax. “We believe that content delivered through AI learning tools should be accurate and comprehensive. This integration with Gemini embodies those principles and provides learners and educators another way to access our high-quality content through a trusted technology partner.”
“Learning is one of the most popular ways people use Gemini, so we're excited to partner with the world's most trusted publisher of high-quality, open educational content,” said Jack Krawczyk, Senior Director of Product Management at Gemini Experiences. “We look forward to expanding the support we provide to students and teachers. By building high-quality, rich, and specific content, Gemini can create engaging learning experiences that spark curiosity, encourage critical thinking, and enable more students to learn effectively.”
All OpenStax resources will continue to be offered free online in their entirety and in various formats at OpenStax.org. For those who prefer printed versions of learning materials, low-cost textbooks will continue to be available.
