Affordable Course Materials and Open Educational Resources (OER) for Faculty

This guide presents pathways for promoting course materials affordability and access, with a focus on Open Educational Resources (OER).  

Over the past 2 decades, college textbook prices have skyrocketed, resulting in documented effects on student academic success, with many students seeking to reduce textbook costs through a variety of means, including not purchasing textbooks, or textbook-sharing. 

To learn more about replacing commercial textbooks with OER, view published research by the Open Education Group and OER Research Fellows. For a snapshot of published OER research findings, visit The Review Project.

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 UC Library Search 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 Reserves for details and request instructions. 

Free and legal to use, improve, and share

• Save time and energy by adapting, revising, or remixing resources that have already been created, thereby expanding opportunities for interdisciplinary teaching and learning

• Tailor educational resources to the specific content for your course

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

• 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

• Review or annotation feature are often available, quickly giving instructors more in-depth knowledge of the resource and its quality

• 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 are not as financially burdened, sometimes increasing graduation and retention rates

• Find and access information instantly on virtually any topic, using various devices

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

Would you like to take a course to deepen your understanding of OER? 

• UC Irvine's Rise 360 Course - OER and Affordable Course Materials
• Academic Senate for California Community Colleges - OER Basics (2022) Canvas Course
• Open Washington OER Network - Some training modules (2017) on OER basic
• SUNY OER Community Course on Lumen Learning - Understanding OER (2018)
• University of Washington - Getting Started with Open Educational Resources (2023) Canvas Course