Open Educational Resource textbooks could save students hundreds per semester
A resolution to spread awareness over Open Educational Resources at USU was passed on Jan. 7 by the Utah State University Student Association academic senate that has the potential to save students thousands of dollars in textbook costs, which have gone up by over 85% since 2006.
“USU Libraries and Academic & Instructional Services are collaborating with various colleges on campus to offer faculty grants for the adoption, adaption, or creation of OER to enhance their classes,” said OER Coordinator Kori Ellis. “The theory behind OER, or Open Educational Resources, is that knowledge should be free, unlimited, and accessible to everyone, everywhere, and not locked behind a paywall.”
OER are freely accessible texts and media that are used for both teaching and learning, all made available online. With this motion, students and faculty alike will have access to a wide range of material.
“OER includes everything from textbooks and lecture slides, to modules, videos, or any other educational resources that reside in the public domain” Ellis said.
OER are being used to better education from the university level down to elementary schools across the nation, in fact USU has already implemented OER into its course catalog.
OER Program Assistant Derek Petersen said “In 2017, College of Humanities and Social Sciences invested $20,000 in grants to introduce OER to CHaSS courses, this resulted in $70,000 on the return of the investment or in money saved”
In the 2018-19 academic year, the OER Program hopes to offer similar grants to the College of Science and College of Engineering in order to replicate the success with CHaSS.
OER have been at USU since 2014, and certain courses have implemented them for several semesters. These professors either forgo textbooks altogether or require fewer course material which also saves time and money.
“A part of this revolution is to let professors to know that we at the OER Program will help implement OER into courses at every step of the way” Petersen said.
Courses using OER range from 1010 introductory classes to upper division classes then to 6000 level capstone classes and include a variety of subjects such as Biology, Geology, Math, Journalism, and Accounting.
“26 unique OER courses were offered at USU during the 2018-19 academic school year. Since 2014, more than 11,000 USU students combined have saved over $1,000,000 through the use of OER” Ellis said.
College of Humanities and Social Sciences Senator McKenna Allred said “we already have so many of these free resources at USU they’re just not well-known to students or faculty.”
Awareness is the first call to action that the academic senate along with the OER Program legislating to faculty, specifically professors to use with their students.
March 4-8 is Open Education Week on campus and the OER Program and USUSA are planning on collaborating in hosting events that could promote OER and inform people who may be aware.
“We believe that this is the best way to move forward, this is why we are calling on any USU body that has the power to make these resources more attainable, to do just that,” Allred said.
@McKayJohnsen