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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.
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
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:
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 is in it's 7th year. Courses are currently in progress and include an expansion of the ZTC (zero textbook cost) degree.
Funded by the Colorado Department of Higher Education (CDHE)
Should you have any questions regarding these courses please reach out to sarah.daniels@aims.edu. Please note that some of these courses are multi course section while others are single course section.
Year 1 Courses
Year 2 Courses
Year 3 Courses
Year 4 Courses
Year 5 Courses
Year 6 Courses
Year 7 Courses (Z-Degree)
Year 8 Courses
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://pressbooks.pub/words/. 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
Connie Lance: Computer Information Systems Faculty
Patrick Gilligan: English Faculty
Stephanie Newton: Visual and Performing Arts Faculty
Emma Murray: Biological Science Faculty
Karen Scarpella: Social Sciences Faculty
Kimberli Bontempo: Psychology Faculty
Lori Adair: Extended Studies, Early College High School Faculty
Lou Cartier
Mark A. Moody: Geography Faculty
Rebecca Sailor: Humanities and English Faculty
Terri Devlin: Computer Science Faculty
