Rice University's educational technology initiative has added nine technology partners that will supply everything from business simulation software to test preparation tools.

The initiative's OpenStax Ally program enhances OpenStax textbook content with low-cost learning technology. The nine new OpenStax Ally partners are:

• Mumbai, India-based Hurix, a provider of e-learning software.
• San Francisco-based LiveCarta, which digitizes books and other content.
• San Mateo, California-based Market Games, which gamifies the learning experience for business students.
• New York City-based Method Test Prep, which offers courses to help students improve their ACT and SAT scores.
• A Coruña, Spain-based Netex, whose tools help users create digital content.
• Chicago-based PowerNotes, which provides a tool for organizing online academic research.
• Chicago-based Red Flag Mania, whose game-based experience is designed to enhance users' critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
• Amsterdam, the Netherlands-based Sowiso, which offers a virtual teaching assistant for STEM education.
• Farmington, Connecticut-based Stemify, whose technology helps boost the STEM capabilities of students and teachers.

These companies' platforms will be made available for global users of OpenStax — more than 36,000 instructors and 4 million students — in the spring 2022 semester.

Rice launched OpenStax in 2012. The initiative reported in August that it has saved students $1.2 billion through the publication of free, openly licensed textbooks. More than 60 percent of degree-granting schools in the U.S. use OpenStax textbooks.

"Expanding offerings through the OpenStax Ally program will allow us to provide our adopters and their students with a wide array of tools that can truly meet their unique needs," Daniel Williamson, managing director of OpenStax, says in a news release. "It's essential to provide educators with strong and vast technology options. They know their students and what will work best for them, and should have the ability to choose the right technology."

The nine new partners join 65 organizations that already offer OpenStax tools for purposes such as classroom engagement, content customization, simulations, and online homework.

"Working with OpenStax takes us closer to reimagining the business textbook," says Casey Nguyen, digital marketing manager at Market Games, whose business simulation technology is at aimed at first-year students. "We … can gamify the learning experience to make quality business education more accessible, realistic, and engaging."

Educational technology providers that want to sign up for the OpenStax Ally program can apply during one of two application periods each year. The next period will begin at the close of the spring 2022 semester.