Kortext, the UK’s leading digital learning platform and etextbooks provider, and OpenStax, a non-profit ed-tech initiative that provides free, peer-reviewed, openly licensed textbooks to millions of students in the U.S., have partnered to provide 23 OpenStax titles in the Kortext library, increasing the number of accessible STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) titles available for universities worldwide.

The partnership will connect the UK’s leading etextbook platform with one of the biggest open access educational repositories in the U.S. in order to contribute to closing the growing “STEM skills gap”. This has become an area of keen interest for UK universities and investment for the UK government (based on report 151, conducted by the Science and Technology Committee for the House of Commons 2017).

It is the hope that by adding more quality educational STEM content to the platform, Kortext will endeavor to provide more support and variety to students. This will also enable universities to target content from specific subject areas and increase the variety of STEM subject resources.

Yaz El Hakim, Director of Education Strategy at Kortext said

Kortext are delighted to announce our new partnership with OpenStax! We believe it will allow all students utilising our personal learning platform to further improve their experience by increasing access to high-quality, digital learning resources. OpenStax and other publishers continue to respond to rising demand from the HE sector for high-quality digital content provided through the platform that offers the best user experience.

Daniel Williamson, Managing Director for OpenStax, said

OpenStax is excited to partner with Kortext to bring more affordable digital resources to students in the UK. By partnering with organisations like Kortext that prioritise universal digital access, instructors and students can easily discover the latest OpenStax resources alongside traditional texts.