Do you have questions about OER, free-to-student options, or other affordable course materials? Contact Nancy Henke, UNC's Textbook Affordability Librarian.
As the cost of textbooks has considerably outpaced inflation, movements to find no-cost or low-cost materials -- known as affordable course materials -- are emerging. There are many benefits in shifting from traditional commercial materials to more affordable options. If you are considering converting part of course, an entire course, or multiple courses from commercial to affordable course materials and would like assistance in identifying affordable materials, contact UNC's Textbook Affordability Librarian, Nancy Henke.
In 2018, the Colorado Department of Higher Education determined the definition of low-cost materials as a total cost of under $20 per course, a definition which UNC also adopted. Adjusted for inflation, "affordable" is under $25 in 2024.
Original content created by instructors for the courses they teach, including text, audio recordings, video recordings, and much more. This category also includes instructor-created ancillary materials such as slide decks, quizzes, and tests.
A form of open pedagogy, students create course materials and/or ancillary materials as part of their coursework. Examples include a course wiki that introduces key concepts or digital flash cards created in a third-party app.
Teaching, learning and research materials that have been released under an open license (usually a Creative Commons license) that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation, and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions.
Journal articles and books that are free, immediately accessible, and online. Users are allowed to use the materials freely in the digital environment, but cannot adapt or redistribute them. The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) are examples of OA collections.
Content and resources that are paid for by the University Libraries and openly available to the UNC community through user authentication. Some digital library materials are licensed for simultaneous use by an entire class.
Materials determined by the instructor to be factual and accurate and that are freely available through the internet, such as TED Talks, Khan Academy, TED Ed, iTunes U, PBS Frontline, EdX, YouTube EDU, and much more.
Creative materials that are either no longer covered by copyright laws or are released directly by creators into the Public Domain. These works can be used freely by anyone without obtaining the creator’s permission.
Fair use allows for limited, socially beneficial uses of copyrighted material without seeking permission, such as criticism, parody, news reporting, research, scholarship, and certain uses in teaching. Fair use is determined by the purpose, nature, amount, and effect of the market of the use.
This chart shows how Affordable and Open Educational Resources (AOER) can be understood to include both low cost and no cost materials.
Design Credits:
Teacher-1724960 by Adrien Coquet from The Noun Project is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.
student-259870 by parkjisun from The Noun Project is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.
Library-1244000 by Thomas from The Noun Project is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.
web-2372870 by Explanaicon from The Noun Project is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.
Public Domain-511 by Public Domain Nouns from The Noun Project is Public Domain.
Scale-1352277 by Mohamed Mb from The Noun Project is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.