Faculty Guide to Affordable & Open Resources: Home

1. OER can either be in the public domain, or under a more lax intellectual property license.
2. OER can be revised, remixed, added upon, translated, and then shared again to meet different needs.
3. OER can take many forms, such as: syllabi, lesson plans, videos, software, tests, teaching techniques, group activities, writing prompts, textbooks, learning modules, experiments, simulations, and course designs. There are no platform restraints.

Source: The Review Project

Over the past 20 years, the cost of college textbooks has increased by nearly 190%. Today, students spend an average of $1,200 per year on textbooks and course materials. These rising costs have led many students to:

• Delay or avoid purchasing required textbooks
• Share materials with classmates
• Use outdated or unofficial versions

These behaviors can negatively impact academic performance and equity in the classroom.

OER are free, openly licensed materials that can replace commercial textbooks. Research shows that OER can:

• Improve student learning outcomes
• Increase course completion rates
• Enhance access and equity

Open Educational Resources (OER) 

• OER are freely available online resources distributed under a copyright license that allows users to retain copies (download, duplicate, store, and manage), reuse, revise, remix, and perhaps most importantly, redistribute. 

Library eBooks 

• Library eBooks are excellent alternatives to requiring commercial textbooks. Locate and access eBooks through the Discovery Tool and contact the library to ensure the eBook has a multiple or unlimited user license to support class use. If we do not own a title, request an eBook purchase.

Library Course Reserves Service

• If you plan to use a small percentage of a text, a collection of articles, or streaming media, the Library can help make these items available to your students. Visit Course Resources for details and request instructions. 

Free and Legal to Use, Improve and Share

• Save time and energy by adapting or revising resources that have already been creating

• Tailoring educational resources to the specific content for your course

• Expands opportunities for interdisciplinary teaching and learning by allowing instructors to integrate and revise multiple educational resources

• Redefines "traditional" learning by often incorporating multi-media or scenario-based education

• Allows instructor to go beyond the confines of "teaching to the book"

Network and Collaborate with Peers 

• Access to educational resources that have already been "peer reviewed" by other experts in your field

• Many resources have a review or annotation feature so instructors have more in-depth knowledge of the resource and its quality quickly

• Makes learning and teaching more collaborative

Lower Educational Cost and Improve Access to Information

• Reduces the cost of course materials, particularly textbooks so that all students have access and aren't as financially burdened

• Find and access information instantly on virtually any topic, and can access with various devices.

• Gives learners the option of looking at course content openly before enrolling.

• Can reduce the students bear, sometimes increasing graduation and retention rates