Textbook prices are continuously rising in higher education. This paper analyzes a business model which makes commercial textbooks more expensive, and explains why this issue tends to be more severe in the field of distance learning in higher education. It reports a case of adoption of open educational resources (OER) textbook for an online course to tackle the problem of high textbook prices which are associated with the bundled online academic services. Based on an analysis of the business model practiced in this case study, the paper discusses the challenges for implementation of this business model in distance education. It provides suggestions for institutional administrations to engage the distance learning community to reduce the costs of higher education.