Aims offers a variety of free course textbooks each semester through No Cost/Low Cost courses or the Reserve Textbook program. College textbooks can be a big expense, and we are thrilled to be able to offer these options to help reduce college costs.
Library Services - Kiefer Library
Free Textbooks
To check out reserve textbooks, please visit the Learning Commons during our open hours. You can browse available textbooks here. Please note that the Learning Commons does not provide eTextbooks or course codes. You can also contact us with any textbook-related questions or requests. Phone: 970-339-6458
Aims CC Open Text Students Video
The No Cost/Low Cost initiative at Aims grew out of early success with OER adoption by a few faculties and became part of Aims strategic plan; increase the adoption of Open Educational Resources (OER) Tactical Goal under the Aims 5-year Strategic Plan (2018-2023) by 1%, year-over-year, for five years.
No cost/Low cost resources are teaching and learning resources that are freely available to educators and students. This initiative reduces costs for students, improves course quality and increases student success.
The OER grant program provides funding to Aims faculty and instructors to review OER, adopt OER resources and/or develop free resources alternative to commercial textbooks. The goal of this grant initiative is to:
- encourage the implementation of cost-saving educational resources while improving academic success of Aims students.
These funds are provided by the Colorado Department of Higher Education (CDHE) and in house by Aims Community College.
Look out for future grant opportunities.
Visit Find OER to locate openly licensed content.
The OER grant has entered it's fourth year and will fund Aims full- or part-time faculty to completely redesign/redevelop any course and or publish original work with open license.
Funded by the Colorado Department of Higher Education (CDHE)
Should you have any questions regarding these courses please reach out to Doug.strauss@aims.edu. Please note that some of these courses are multi course section while others are single course section.
Year 1 Courses
- Art Appreciation - ART 110
- General College Biology II - BIO 112
- Business Ethics and Values - MAN 112
- Intercultural Communication - COM 220
- Public Speaking - COM 115
- Introduction to Literature - LIT 115
- Medieval to Modern - HUM 122
- Responding to Emergencies - (HWE 122)
- Human Geography - GEO 106
- Social Psychology - PSY 226
Year 2 Courses
- Introduction to Women and Gender Studies - WST 200
- Cultural Anthropology - ANT 101
- Art History 1900-Present - ART 207
- Introduction to Energy Technologies - ENY 101
- Automation Control Circuits - ELT 248
Year 3 Courses
- General College Biology I with Lab - BIO 111
- Computer Aided Drafting 3D - CAD 202
- Introduction to Statistics - MAT 135
- Introduction to Education - EDU 221
- Conceptual Physics with Lab - PHY105
Year 4 Courses & Resources
- In progress
OER Published Resources
Brown, Heather (2020). Responding to emergencies: Skills manual.
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1VYWe7v0tnJSRiwf0bP3CdeNs0nDGQ9ja. Licensed CC BY NC SA.
Cronckhite, Ty (2021). A handbook of classical rhetoric for advanced composition. https://words.pressbooks.com/. Licensed CC BY NC SA
Murray, Emma (2021). General Biology I & II for majors: Laboratory manual & workbook. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1rQ7rFkY5TuiVcVceUXykq0xSmbQ-MO60. Licensed CC BY SA
Funded by Aims
These textbooks are located in the Open Textbook Library (OTL).
Catherine Beighey: Sociology Faculty
- OER Book Reviewed: Social Problems: Continuity and Change
Connie Lance: Computer Information Systems Faculty
- OER Book Reviewed: A Byte of Python - Python programming
Patrick Gilligan: English Faculty
- OER Book Reviewed: Let's Get Writing
Stephanie Newton: Visual and Performing Arts Faculty
- OER Book Reviewed: Introduction to Art: Design, Context, and Meaning for Art Appreciation
Emma Murray: Biological Science Faculty
- OER Book Reviewed: Biology 2e
Karen Scarpella: Social Sciences Faculty
- OER Book Reviewed: Introduction to Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies
Kimberli Bontempo: Psychology Faculty
- OER Book Reviewed: Psychology
Lori Adair: Extended Studies, Early College High School Faculty
- OER Book Reviewed: Stand up, Speak out: The Practice and Ethics of Public Speaking
Lou Cartier
- OER Book Reviewed: Business Ethics
Mark A. Moody: Geography Faculty
- OER Book Reviewed: World Regional Geography
Rebecca Sailor: Humanities and English Faculty
- OER Book Reviewed: World Literature I: Beginnings to 1650
Terri Devlin: Computer Science Faculty
- OER Book Reviewed: An Introduction to Computer Networks - Computer Networking