Education
Textbooks
Guide to Boundless
Introduction to Boundless
Our Product
Education Textbooks Guide to Boundless Introduction to Boundless Our Product
Education Textbooks Guide to Boundless Introduction to Boundless
Education Textbooks Guide to Boundless
Education Textbooks
Education
Concept Version 8
Created by Boundless

Open Content, Paid Courseware

All Boundless content is available for free online; our paid product allows an educator to customize a textbook, create assignments for their students, and track student performance.

Learning Objective

  • Distinguish between Boundless' free and paid products


Key Points

    • The content of all Boundless textbooks is always available for free on our site, no sign-in required.
    • The $29.99 per-student cost applies when an educator wants to customize a textbook using Boundless content, create assignments to send out to their students, and track student progress and performance.
    • Paying students also gain access to our award-winning e-reader and its suite of study tools: the ability to highlight and take notes in their book, practice quizzes, and flashcards.
    • We refer to the $29.99 product as Boundless courseware.

Full Text

Free Content—for Everyone

At Boundless, we have a staunch commitment to making education universally accessible. To this end, the text content of all Boundless textbooks—in more than 20 introductory-college subjects—is always available completely free on our website for anyone to browse, study, and cite.

So you might be wondering...if all our content is free, what is our business model? 

Boundless Courseware

While the text content of our textbooks is always free, Boundless also offers this content as part of a larger "courseware" package. Our courseware costs just $29.99 per student—and yet it offers far more than a traditional print textbook that may cost hundreds of dollars or that a student may be forced to rent for only a semester's worth of access to save money. 

The following are the key features that differentiate the courseware from our basic free content.

Customization

Educators vary widely in how much they want to customize the textbook they use in their class. It's easy to adopt one of our more than 20 introductory-level textbooks off the shelf; it's simple to also customize a book to your heart's desire using our straightforward drag-and-drop editor. You can also author your own content modules and seamlessly fold them into your customized version of our book! From that point on, you will have the option to either freeze your book as is or integrate the periodic updates we make to the included content modules—so nothing changes under your feet without you knowing.

Class Management

As an educator, you can create a class on Boundless, link your custom book to the class, and draw upon our giant library of quiz and reading assignments to send to your students, or create your own assignments. These assignments are auto-graded for the educator's convenience, and student- and class-level analytics highlight concepts your class may be struggling with.

LMS Integration

If you or your school uses a learning management system (LMS), such as Canvas or Blackboard, chances are we've got you covered! Boundless integrates seamlessly with the leading LMSs on the market; our content and assignments show up directly within the LMS frame, and grades are passed directly to the LMS's internal gradebook.

E-Reader

For their thirty dollars, students gain access to their professor's customized textbook in our award-winning e-reader with time-to-read estimates and integrated study tools (see below). The e-reader is also responsive, which means it presents itself differently if being used on a mobile phone vs. a tablet vs. a computer that self-adjusts based on the student's device. 

Study Tools

The e-reader contains a number of study aids to deepen the student's engagement with the material. These include highlights, note-taking functionality, vocabulary flashcards, and practice quizzes to check comprehension. Highlights and notes are also saved in a browsable Notebook, which saves the student time when reviewing for exams.

Lifetime Access

We don't believe in taking away access to educational materials. When a student pays for Boundless, those materials (including their notes, highlights, and assignments) are theirs for life. They can always access them from their Boundless account on our website.

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