Flat World Knowledge, a publisher of free and open college textbooks, today announced it will soon begin the nation's largest in-classroom test of open college textbooks. The nationwide beta test of its books involves hundreds of students from 15 colleges and universities across the United States.

Flat World Knowledge's free and open textbooks will replace traditional textbooks in a single class or class section at each participating institution. The beta test begins this August and will run through the completion of the Fall 2008 semester.

Through Flat World's open platform, students will have access to complete textbooks free of charge, with the option to purchase affordable alternate formats of the content (i.e. print & audio versions of the text for $30 and $25 respectively) and study aids (podcast study guides, mobile phone flash cards, etc.). Flat World's books will also be open for faculty to customize.

The beta launch of Flat World Knowledge comes amid a growing outcry from students, educators, parents and government regulators who are demanding a halt to the unsustainable textbook price increases of the last decade. Expensive college textbooks, which routinely run students over $900 per year, threaten to make higher education unaffordable for many students. The crisis of high textbook prices was the subject of a 2007 report from the Student Public Interest Research Groups.

According to Jeff Shelstad, co-founder and CEO of Flat World Knowledge:

The traditional textbook publishing model no longer serves the interests of students, educators, and authors. Textbooks are too expensive for students and too inflexible for instructors. And authors, the major, initial source of value in the industry, are increasingly confused by faster revision demands and their compensation for those revisions.

The beta test will involve four new Flat World Knowledge textbooks, including Launch!: Advertising and Promotion in Real Time by Michael Solomon, Lisa Duke and Amit Nizan; Exploring Business by Karen Collins; Principles of Microeconomics by Libby Rittenberg and Timothy Tregarthen; and Fundamentals of Income Tax Theory and Practice by Dieter Kiefer.

The beta test will provide Flat World Knowledge with valuable feedback from instructors and students about its textbooks, ranging from the quality of the books and related study aids to the quality of the overall learning experience. Feedback learned during the semester-long testing will help the company further improve its books and online platform prior to its worldwide commercial launch in advance of the Spring 2009 school period. The Spring 2009 launch will feature an expanded product roster of eight textbooks; all focused initially on business and economics subjects. The company currently has a total of 15 textbooks under contract and in the pipeline.