Blog

Mariana Lazarova was awarded an LAC exploration grant in 2023 to research the potential of converting AST 109 to low-cost materials, and then received OER grants in 2023-24 to convert AST 101 to OER, and another in 2024-25 to renew and refresh AST 109.

What courses did you convert to OER?

I converted to OER two of the large introductory, LAC [Liberal Arts Curriculum] astronomy courses: AST 109: The Cosmos and AST 101: Stars and Galaxies. AST 109 – currently delivered online, asynchronously - is a class very popular with UNC students across all fields of study, from freshmen to seniors. It offers a broad overview of all of astronomy, from the night sky to cosmology. AST 101 is an in-person introductory course with evening observational labs, more narrowly focused on the evolution of stars and galaxies in the universe.

What open resources did you use in your converted course?

The main change for both courses has been in replacing the commercial textbook with the open access one from OpenStax.org Astronomy 2e  by Fraknoi, Morrison and Wolf.

What motivated you to convert your courses?

In short, I wanted to provide immediate and free access to a good textbook. The constantly increasing cost of the textbook I used to require for the courses was placing an undue burden on our students. Plus, students on financial aid always received their textbook funds weeks into the semester, and delayed textbook access adversely affects learning. AST 101 has a large enrollment of 60-70 students every semester. AST 109 is even larger, serving up to 200 students, and given I teach one section of it every Fall, Spring and Summer semesters, I am able to reach up to 1600 undergraduate students over 4 years – a quarter of the UNC undergrads.

Could you describe the process you went through to convert your courses to OER?

Initially, my goal was to convert AST 109 to a low-cost course, not to an OER. I planned to change the commercial textbook to the open access OpenStax one and to replace the commercial online homework resource MasteringAstronomy with a lower cost one from WebAssign. But during my efforts to negotiate a cost below $20 per student per semester with the publisher, I was told that the pricing on their website is outdated, and students would have to pay twice as much. While they were willing to provide the site access at a reduced cost for a year, the price was going to increase afterwards. I am tired of seeing predatory publishers constantly and unjustifiably increase prices – and I wanted to shield my students from that. So I spend much of the summer building my own homework sets on Canvas and in the Fall offering what AST 109 as an OER course, with a free textbook and Canvas homework.

Did you encounter any challenges during the conversion process, and if so, how did you overcome them?

Changing the textbook was seamless. OpenStax provide easy LMS integration with Canvas. My challenge now is to continue to improve the homework sets. The initial one was ok, but the previous homework resource included video tutorial and interactive problems, which are impossible to build in Canvas. Canvas has limitation in how students can demonstrate their knowledge, which has been a bit frustrating.

Have you received any feedback from students about using OER in your course? If so, what has been their response?

On the first day of class in AST 101, in its first offering as an OER, there was a very noticeable sigh of relief when students learned that we will be using OER materials, and that they will not have to pay for a textbook. Previously, with the paid textbook, many students would not access to the textbook and homework for weeks into the semester, which prevented them from completing the graded discissions and put them behind. Now that barrier is not there since the textbook is available to them on day 1.

I compared student test scores between my previous and the new OER offerings of AST 109 and AST 101 and discovered that learning improved by an average of 9% and 8 % in those classes, respectively.

Can you share any advice or tips for other faculty members who are considering converting their courses to OER?

I was reluctant to even try to convert a course to OER. The low-stakes, small exploration OER grant helped me get started thinking of possibilities, without obligations to pursue the change – which was key for me. I believe I might have even inspired some colleagues in the Department to convert their astronomy courses, as I was becoming quite excited about the change and the benefit it would have for students. I discovered there are many resources available which made the work easier than I expected.

Diana Becker was awarded an OER grant in the 2023-24 academic year. In this profile, she discusses why and how she is using OER in her NURS 374 Clinical: Adult Health course. 

What course did you convert to OER?

I converted NURS 374, which is a course where nursing students learn at the beginning of the semester how to care for adult patients in the hospital setting. They then put these principles into practice during a 10-week rotation working alongside nurses in the hospital.

What open resource(s) did you use?

I used two sources primarily: Nursing Advanced Skills by Open RN and Nursing Skills, 2e by Chippewa Valley Technical College.

What motivated you to convert your course to OER?

When I attended college a number of years ago, I remember the cost associated with textbooks.  I also remember that some of those books were not used for more than a chapter or two.  I began to look at alternatives to traditional textbooks after a colleague discussed it at a faculty meeting.

Could you describe the process you went through to convert your course to OER? 

Prior to conversion, I had a pretty good idea of what I was looking for.  Additionally, I had already done some research into what resources I may want to use.  Since the resources I was looking for primarily pertained to skill attainment, it was easy to find the style of book that I wanted.  I also knew that I didn’t just want to change to an online book.  I wanted to create a resource that presented material that students needed to know, rather than having to find the pages or sections I wanted the students to read.  Once I found the resources I wanted, I read through each section and created separate documents: must read, good review, and checklists.  During the fall semester, I created a resource using the desired material for what the students must read.  Moving forward, I hope to also create a resource with the review materials and checklists.

Did you encounter any challenges during the conversion process, and if so, how did you overcome them?

The main challenge I have faced is working with colleagues about the advantages to OER materials.  We are still working through this!  Otherwise, I was fortunate to easily find materials I wanted to use.

Have you received any feedback from students about using OER in your course? If so, what has been their response?

I sent out a 7-question survey to students.  I didn’t receive a lot of feedback, but those who did respond found the materials accessible and easy to read.  However, many of them didn’t read all of the materials.  But, those who didn’t read all materials did self-report that they often don’t read materials for courses.

Can you share any advice or tips for other faculty members who are considering converting their courses to OER?

If you are considering using OER, do it. If you just keep thinking about it, you will never do it.  I think it is well worth the faculty time because it truly enables you to create a resource that is specific to your course, without all of the extra information or materials that may be in a traditional textbook.

Stepping into my new role as a Graduate Assistant focused on Open Educational Resources (OER) has been a profound and eye-opening experience. As a first-generation undergraduate and graduate student from Ghana, a developing country, where access to educational resources is often limited, working with the OER team at UNC has shown me the transformative power of open education. Not only does it challenge the traditional models of learning, but it also offers the potential to change lives by making education more equitable and accessible.

Being a first-generation student from a developing country comes with its own set of challenges. Education has always been seen as a luxury in my community, rather than a right. Textbooks, research materials, and even basic access to information are often out of reach for many students like myself. As I pursued my undergraduate and now graduate degrees, I have always been aware of the financial burden that textbooks and learning resources can place on students. It is not uncommon for students back home to rely on outdated textbooks, shared among classmates, or to go without the materials they need to truly succeed in their studies. This has fueled my passion for exploring alternative approaches to education—ones that do not exclude students based on financial capabilities.

I was fortunate to join the OER team as a Graduate Assistant, a role that perfectly aligns with my passion for education and advocacy. Before joining this team, I had no idea how far-reaching the concept of OER could be. In my home country, the idea of freely accessible, high-quality educational resources is still in its infancy. The cost of textbooks and academic materials is a significant hurdle for many students. For this reason, being part of an OER initiative in a more developed context has truly opened my eyes to the potential impact OER can have, not only in the U.S. but globally.

The primary focus of OER is to provide students with the resources they need to succeed without financial strain. In countries like mine, where families struggle to cover basic living expenses, the cost of textbooks can often be overwhelming. OER help bridge this gap by ensuring that no student is denied access to quality educational resources due to cost. These resources are designed not only to reduce costs but to improve educational outcomes by making up-to-date materials more readily available. The ability to access educational resources without the need for expensive textbooks means that students can focus more on learning and less on how they will afford the next book.

While OER is making great strides in developed countries, there are still significant challenges in introducing these resources to less developed nations. Many countries, including my home country Ghana, face infrastructure issues, such as limited internet access and outdated technology. These problems can prevent students from fully benefiting from the wealth of free resources that OER offer. However, the potential for change is tremendous. With increased awareness and support, we can begin to introduce OER in my home country and others like it. As I continue to grow in my role, I am committed to advocating for the integration of OER in developing countries. This will require collaboration between governments, educational institutions, and organizations dedicated to promoting open access to education. By building awareness around OER and creating the infrastructure to support it, we can take meaningful steps towards a more equitable and accessible educational future.

My journey as an OER Graduate Assistant has only just begun, but I already feel a deep sense of purpose in this role. Education has the power to uplift individuals and transform communities, and OER are critical tools in making that happen. As I continue to work with the OER team, I look forward to being part of this global movement for change, one that prioritizes the needs of students and breaks down the barriers that have traditionally stood in the way of educational success. OER have shown me that education does not need to be restricted by financial constraints—it can and should be available to everyone, regardless of where they are in the world. I am excited to bring this knowledge back to my home country, where I hope to be part of the movement to promote OER and ensure that every student has the opportunity to succeed.

Open Educational Resources represent more than just a cost-saving initiative—they represent a fundamental shift in how we view education. OER remove barriers, level the playing field, and ensure that all students have the opportunity to reach their full potential. I look forward to continuing my work with the OER team and contributing to this global vision for a better, more equitable educational landscape.

At the very start of my undergraduate program, I learned very quickly about the high cost of textbooks. As a first-generation college student, I was thankful to be a part of a TRIO program, Educational Talent Search (ETS) that had spoken about preparing for some of these financial challenges we could face when we entered college. To save money, I had learned from this program and those before me that it was a good idea to go to the textbook store early before classes began to be able to buy the best used books to save money and I did just that. I found that this method worked most of the time, but sometimes I had to purchase brand-new books wrapped up in plastic. Purchase of books and ways to save money was often on my mind as each semester approached throughout my entire undergraduate program. Thankfully, I was able to make things work financially with the help of scholarships, tips from peers, and even a lucky game of Bingo with my grandmother one semester to get the items I needed for my courses.  

Experiences growing up as a first-generation college student and summer job experience during my undergraduate program led me to a career in student support. For almost 20 years, I have worked for student support programs beginning as an Academic Advisor and later Assistant Director for a local TRIO program serving over 600 first-generation and/or low-income students prepare to make their way to be the first in their families to go to college and earn a degree. For the last seven years, I have had the privilege of working in the Division of Student Academic Success as a Success Coach and Advisor for the Soar Office here at the University of Northern Colorado.  Although there were some differences in serving students in a pre-collegiate program versus the college level, the financial challenges and concerns on both ends have been consistent.   

Throughout my time at UNC, I have had several conversations with students at the start of each semester where a student informs me that they had to delay the purchase of books until they could afford it. We then look for books on reserve, the possibility of sharing a book with a peer, and communication with their instructors.  Depending on the course, these methods are not always successful to help them get by. My observation with this delay in purchase often leads to falling behind in class, poor grades, and at times the inability to complete the course. For those that decide to make sacrifices to purchase books on time sometimes take from other budget areas to make it work. One of my previous students once shared that she had to take money from her gas and food budget to purchase books because she said, “for me buying books determines if I pass a class successfully with a good grade or not.” 

In fall of 2022 I was asked if I wanted to join UNC’s Affordable and Open Educational Resources (AOER) committee. At the time, I did not know what this was about, so I spoke with some members of the committee, and I learned that AOER is about affordable/low-cost or free learning and research materials that carry legal permissions for the opportunities of revision and redistribution.  Wow! Affordable and free access to books for students? What a great opportunity for me to continue to advocate and support not only Soar students with textbook cost challenges, but all UNC students, so I quickly joined.  My time as a committee member made me aware of not only what AOER were about but made me aware of courses on campus already utilizing OER. With this knowledge, I have been able to better support students by looking into OER course opportunities for them and it allowed me to share information with other advisors in my network.  

Once I learned about instructors that had made OER an opportunity for their students, I was eager to learn more about the student perspective. As further conversations occurred with students that mentioned they had taken an OER class or two, I wanted to know how OER influenced their learning experience and what impact it had on financial cost savings. One of my students, Jessica Guerra, offered to share some insight into her own experiences below: 

Hi! My name is Jessica, and I am one of Melinda’s students in Soar; currently, I am a Junior studying Psychology with a minor in Human Services. AOER in my courses have helped me immensely when it came to the cost of materials for courses. I have taken many classes where the professor has used AOER including PSY 166 Skills and Careers, PSY 323 Health Psych, HON 101 Critical Thinking, HUSR 205 Intro to Human Services, PHIL 100 Intro to Philosophy, and PSY 230 Lifespan Development. Within these classes having these free and accessible resources, I have probably saved $1000 dollars or more! 

Not only does it save me money on the cost of books, but it also saves me trouble in trying to figure out what site to use if the link isn’t provided to find a cheaper book, or if I have to order a hard copy, waiting till the last minute for the book to arrive before the first few assignments are due to read the required text. Instead, the professor provides the materials on Canvas and I am able to access them whenever and wherever I need and want. I am a part of the AOER committee with the hope of encouraging more professors to change their courses to open educational or affordable resources. 

OER provide open books and access to support students. I am thankful for the opportunity to learn about OER and be part of a community bringing about awareness. I encourage students to reach out to faculty and inquire about OER for their classes and look for opportunities to engage in an OER course when you register for classes. See how to find OER classes at UNC on the student page on the UNC OER website. I encourage faculty to look into this possibility and see if OER could be right for you.  

Dr. Meg du Bray was awarded an OER grant in the 2022-23 school year as part of Cohort 4 of OER grant recipients. Below, she discusses how she uses OER in her courses, her motivations for using OER, and the process she used (and continues to use) in converting and updating her course.

What course did you convert to OER?

I had previously used OER materials in my ENST 100: Introduction to Environmental Studies course, so I used this opportunity to search for alternatives to the OER textbook I had been using. There’s now an updated edition, and I found additional OER materials to use in other classes.

What open resource(s) did you use?

I used OASIS, LibreTexts, MERLOT, and OpenStax most regularly.

What motivated you to convert your course to OER?

I know that financial costs are a struggle for many of our students, and I want to make their education as valuable to them as possible, while also minimizing costs to them. I never want financial burden to be a reason someone can’t do well in my class, and OER makes it easier on them. Plus, environmental studies, like many fields, is a rapidly evolving and changing field. I want to be able to rely on up-to-date information!

Could you describe the process you went through to convert your course to OER?

When I first adopted OER at another institution, I had previously been using a textbook that I liked but didn’t feel covered all the material that I wanted it to. Once I went through and looked at the possible options, I still felt that no single text covered everything I wanted it to, but the book I use, Environmental Biology comes the closest. Over several years of trial and error, I have gotten comfortable with the text enough to try using different sections at different points in the course. This obviously required me to change lecture slides, incorporate additional readings and activities, and so on, but has allowed me more flexibility in my teaching, as well.

Did you encounter any challenges during the conversion process, and if so, how did you overcome them?

The biggest challenge was finding a textbook that I felt really addressed the interdisciplinary components of the field and the course. At the end of the day, I have used a number of different materials, in addition to the OER textbook (such as podcasts, YouTube clips, and pop-sci readings) to make sure I get complete coverage. Sometimes it’s about looking in different places!

Have you received any feedback from students about using OER in your course? If so, what has been their response?

My students have mentioned that they appreciate the lower cost of taking this course. Environmental studies textbooks can run around $100-150, and it’s nice that they don’t have to decide between that book and another. Especially since many students take this as an LAC, I believe they appreciate the low cost!

Can you share any advice or tips for other faculty members who are considering converting their courses to OER?

Check as many OER sites as you can. Even if you can’t convert your entire course to OER, you might find some really neat activities, or even complete syllabi that help you rethink your courses. I now check the OER sites first to get inspiration to develop new courses!

Dr. Cassie Bergstrom (CB), Associate Professor of Psychological Sciences, and Dr. Molly Jameson (MJ), Interim Director of CETL, recently sat down to talk about OER.

MJ: Thanks so much for talking with me today, Dr. Bergstrom. So, can you tell us a little bit about what OER means?

CB: Sure! OER are open educational resources or materials that can be used in classes free of cost. These resources can also be modified by faculty to best fit their goals for classes. The result is materials that are adaptable and closely fit the course's goals and have the additional benefit of free access for both students and faculty.

MJ: That sounds helpful for both instructors and students. What are some of the benefits of using OER for instructors?

CB: For instructors, benefits include adopting or adapting materials that most closely fit the learning objectives they have for their students. If students don’t need to buy a textbook, it also means that all students (regardless of their financial situation) will have access to the course materials that are essential for learning. An additional benefit for instructors is the possibility of working with and sharing materials with other instructors, creating a sense of community and shared purpose.

MJ: I can totally see that. I also really like your point about how OER results in materials that fit the course goals, which is an important part of strong course design. I know when I used regular textbooks, there were often chapters I would skip or sections within chapters that I did not use. But with OER, I can use only specific chapters or even specific sections from open access texts. How about the benefits of using OER for students?

CB: For students, the primary benefit is avoiding the costs of traditional textbooks! Textbooks are often not covered by financial aid and that means that students who might not be financially secure may choose to share or go without required textbooks, impacting students’ learning and grades. It is quite challenging to learn the content when you cannot afford the book, so OER allows all students access to the material.

MJ: Traditional textbooks ARE expensive! I remember several years ago a student told me that they had to choose between buying textbooks and paying their rent that month. That’s ridiculous! Because OER are open and affordable, it sounds more accessible to students from diverse backgrounds, like first-generation students or financially insecure students. Is that right?

CB: That’s right. Using OER in classes reduces the barrier of high-cost instructional materials for all students, but they have the highest impact on students who come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Often OER are integrated right into the course’s Canvas shell, making them easy to find and accessible. Additionally, students can access the OER right at the beginning of a course, not needing to wait for a textbook to ship or for financial aid to come in to access the course materials.

MJ: That is so important for student success. It sounds like OER are beneficial to everyone involved. Are there any downsides to using OER?

CB: There are some things to be aware of. First, it’s important to make sure that students know how to access the materials for the course. If students have patchy internet access at their homes, it might be beneficial for them to be able to download the resources. Second, it does take a bit of time on the instructor’s end to find and integrate OERs into a preexisting course. However, we do have some wonderful resources at UNC to help with this process!

MJ: Why do you think some instructors are hesitant to make the jump into OER? Or why are there not more instructors using OER?

CB: Those are great questions. I think some instructors get very connected to the textbooks they use for courses, particularly if they have used the same text for years. There’s also a lack of knowledge about where to find OER materials that would be a good fit and how to collect and utilize these materials in courses. Finally, trying out new things can be a bit scary! Instructors have often used textbooks both as students and faculty, so adapting to a new way to consider course materials can be a bit intimidating.

MJ: As an instructor who uses OER, what is your biggest piece of advice for people who want to adopt OER in their classrooms?

CB: Try it out!  You can take small steps towards using OER, like trying them out for one unit or one topic in a class. Also, I highly encourage folks who are interested in learning more about OER to attend some of the activities during Open Ed week or to reach out to people in their departments who have used OER or Nancy Henke, our textbook affordability librarian at UNC.

MJ: What can centers that focus on teaching and learning, like CETL, do to enhance and improve OER use to supplement teaching and learning?

CB: I think integrating information about OER into multiple areas of content would help improve the visibility and understanding of what OER entail and why they are beneficial. Not only do they help support students and student learning, but they can enhance the fit between instructional materials and instructors’ learning objectives for students.

MJ: Dr. Bergstrom, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me today about OER. I have shifted several of my classes to OER, and after our conversation today, I see a few places where I can start to make some more small changes. I am also very thankful for your advice for CETL, and I look forward to continued collaborations to enhance OER, teaching, and learning here at UNC!

Not to oversell it, but I grew up poor. The kind of poor where all your dishes are old Cool Whip containers and where you decide that some nights it’s better for everyone if you just go to sleep hungry. When I decided to go to college as a first-generation student, I knew it would be a risk. Given my background, there wasn’t going to be a safety net for me to fall back on if things went wrong. But even if I had to do it on my own, I knew that college was the only opportunity I had if I wanted to change my situation -- and so for me, it was a risk I had to take. 

Knowing it was something that I had to do didn’t make the first few semesters any easier though. College, as it turns out, is expensive. Being a low-income student meant that while I had my tuition covered by financial aid, all the other expenses that came with college looked like mountains. From asking professors to see if I could complete an assignment on paper because I couldn’t afford a laptop, to having to walk to class because I couldn’t afford a parking pass – each fee risked the possibility of pushing me into the negative and out of school. A few days before my first classes I went to hunt down the required textbooks and quickly realized that even rentals, the lowest cost option, were well outside of my budget. So I didn’t buy them.  

Taking classes without the required materials is a lot like starting a course half-way through the semester; it feels like every assignment and lecture is in the middle of a topic that you’ve never even heard about before. Tests are based on topics only covered in the readings, assignments are on certain chapters, exams are open book (but only if you have a book to open). To sum up the overall experience: it stinks. For a long time, it felt like I was getting half the education that I’d paid for simply because I wasn’t able to afford the materials for those classes. To be honest, it was crushing. 

It's this experience, however, that made me so excited about affordable and open educational resources (AOER). I first heard about AOER during my first semester at UNC. Searching for a job, my advisor recommended I apply for the ‘UNC Libraries AOER student position’ – to which I promptly asked, “What in the world is an AOER?” As it turns out, AOER are the solution to the very problem that had nearly driven me out of college: course materials that were things other than traditional textbooks, like library resources or online content, or openly licensed materials made available to students for free. Once I knew what AOER were, I knew that I had to get in, and less than a month later I would be starting my first day on the job. 

As UNC’s AOER student employee I work with UNC’s AOER committee to advertise, facilitate, and advocate for AOER on campus. This means that I get to bring a student voice to the conversation. While the decision to use AOER lies entirely in the hands of faculty, I get to be an advocate for those who would benefit the most from these materials and help spread the word so that students can take courses that best fit their budget. It would be an understatement to say that doing this work has returned my agency in what has felt like a hopeless situation.  

I would love to say that AOER have suddenly fixed the entire affordability crisis that higher education is going through, but that's not true. What I can say, however, is that the AOER movement offers an opportunity to make college better. It is an opportunity to better facilitate and share knowledge, an opportunity to get students more involved in the learning process, an opportunity to better facilitate diversity into college classrooms, and an opportunity to allow students like me to get an education – and maybe even change their lives. 

As an undergraduate, long before I knew about affordable and open educational resources (AOER), I gave a speech at a well-attended university event where I decried the high cost of textbooks. After my speech, a fellow student asked me, shocked, “Are you allowed to talk about that?”

Spoiler: I’m still talking about it.

I didn’t know then that my career path would lead me into the higher education classroom as an instructor of Composition and Literature, through my degree in Library and Information Science, and right back around to issues of educational access and knowledge equity.

As UNC’s Textbook Affordability Librarian, I develop, sustain, and advocate for initiatives that promote free-to-student educational resources. This may mean working with faculty to adopt, adapt, or create OER for their courses, or exploring options for integrating library-licensed materials into a course, such as e-books available through library subscription databases.

My 13 years teaching at another university prior to my role at UNC has certainly influenced my views on AOER. On the one hand, I have extensive experience developing courses – from choosing textbooks to developing lessons and assessments to crafting quizzes and building Canvas courses – and I recognize the immense workload that comes with that endeavor. Converting a course from using a traditional, all-rights-reserved textbook to affordable and open resources is no mean feat; I deeply sympathize with faculty members’ legitimate concerns about the labor involved in doing so. I similarly respect the principles of academic freedom and the right of faculty to choose learning resources they deem best for their students and courses.

On the other hand, though, from the vantage point of a classroom-instructor-turned-AOER-advocate, I now see aspects of my previous relationship with the textbook industry very differently than I did while I was teaching. Especially in light of my impassioned speech about textbook costs as an undergraduate, I’ll admit that the cost of my students’ course materials wasn’t top of mind when I was an instructor.

Consider the opacity of textbook costs for faculty. It is possible for a faculty member to choose a textbook for a course and not even know exactly what students will pay for it. Some publishers make a faculty member “dig” to determine how much students will pay for the title, and in retrospect I’m ashamed to think that I often required a textbook without knowing the out-of-pocket cost for my students. After all, as an instructor I received a free copy of any textbook I was considering adopting for my courses, since publishers want to make it easy for faculty to review (and ideally, adopt) a textbook they sell. Of course, I knew it wouldn’t be free for my students, but the fact that my copy of the book simply materialized when I requested it from a publisher led to me focus only on the content of the book, not its cost.

Case in point: I taught early American literature for many years, and each semester I assigned a high-quality yet high-cost anthology from a major publisher. Even though I purposefully chose an older edition of the book to cut student costs, I now know that students easily paid over $70 for a new copy of the previous edition and over $50 for a used copy. And, to make it even worse, this is for literature that is so old that it’s in the public domain, meaning it’s no longer protected by copyright. At least 90% of the works I taught in that course are available for free anywhere on the web simply because of their age. Yes, there was plenty of “value-added” in this text: essential historical context, helpful timelines, thoughtful introductions written by experts in the field, etc. Yet that kind of content is also available in OER texts for free.

In the end, I’m a realist and recognize that not every learning resource in every class in every discipline will ever be completely open, and that’s fine. Yet as former teaching faculty now immersed in the world of open education, I hope to reach those instructors who, like me in my previous career, aren’t aware of OER or have misconceptions about them. We all know that the costs of higher education have soared, but what students pay for tuition and fees is simply outside the control of faculty. The cost of course materials, however, is within their control, and when a student doesn’t pay $70 for their American literature anthology, they have $70 for groceries, or gas, or a new pair of winter boots, or a thousand other things they need for themselves and their family.

There’s nothing I can do now about my having required expensive textbooks in the past other than fail forward. My position at UNC Libraries gives me the opportunity to make amends by advancing programs that help current and future UNC students save on textbooks. My undergraduate self who gave that speech way back when might have been disappointed that Instructor Nancy didn’t do more to control textbook costs for her students, but she’d certainly be on board with Librarian Nancy who works on behalf of AOER.  

As a master’s student in professional counseling, I would estimate I spent nearly $500 on textbooks  during my first year in the program, with the book content ranging from the basic introduction to the counseling profession, to diagnostic manuals and treatment planning resources. While I am excited to be pursuing my dreams, especially as a first-generation student, the cost of higher education has become an increasingly salient issue for me as I have progressed through my education. I often find myself wondering, when all is said and done and I walk across the stage as Dr. Henderson someday, how much will I have spent on my education, on tuition and books, from my bachelor’s degree to my doctorate? I know I am not alone in wondering this and feel that it has become a question that many students find themselves asking. The cost of education, and the materials that go along with our education, have become a substantial barrier for many to academic success. Some may argue that if students cannot afford the textbooks for classes, they can use their university library’s resources, but with limited resources that are often utilized by more than one student, many are left scrambling to access course materials that often determine their success in the course. While student success is a multi-faceted issue, I feel that we set many of our students up for failure by requiring expensive textbooks for courses, especially courses that are required to complete a degree. How can we address this textbook issue so that students have financially friendly options for class materials as they work toward their goals?

            I first learned of open educational resources (OER) during my first semester of graduate school. In search of a job, I had applied for a position with UNC’s University Libraries as an OER graduate student employee. I remember reading through the job description and thinking to myself, “This position sounds great, and I think I’m qualified, but I have no idea what OER is!” Luckily, I landed the position, and had the opportunity to steadily learn all about OER for the next few months. The benefits of using OER in classrooms quickly became clear, and I realized that increasing the use of OER materials could help to alleviate some of the financial burden for students in higher education. However, I found myself wondering why I had not heard of OER before, and why professors were not using these resources in place of expensive textbooks more often. If we have the tools to make higher education more accessible and affordable, why aren’t we using them? I wonder if part of the issue stems from common misconceptions of OER, with one of the biggest misconceptions about OER materials being that because they are free, they must be of lower quality. While I am sure that OER materials exist out there which certainly are of lower quality, the materials I have come across and worked with during my time with University Libraries have been of overwhelmingly high quality. Many sites which offer collections of OER also offer rating systems for individual materials and provide users an opportunity to leave honest reviews and even suggestions for changing the material. In fact, one of the coolest aspects of OER is how customizable the content often is; using OER offers professors the opportunity to edit materials to better fit the focus of the course and its unique learning outcomes. While integrating OER into a course can be a learning curve, plenty of resources exist to make the process easier. To the professors considering OER, I encourage you to learn more and give it a chance; in making the jump to using OER, we provide our students with customized, high-quality, and affordable materials that contribute to their learning and overall success in higher education.

In some of my courses, I have begun to integrate the free web annotation tool Hypothesis. Free to use, students all mark up and highlight the same document. In doing so, students engage more with the text, and each other. This is a paradigm shift from approaches that are typically used in learning management systems such as Canvas; rather than read an article and then reply to a prompt in a discussion board, students can converse and reply right on the document itself.

I first learned about social annotation by following the work of friend and colleague Dr. Jeremiah (Remi) Kalir, assistant professor of Learning Design and Technology at the University of Colorado Denver. Kalir coauthored the new book Annotation with Antero Garcia on the history and current practice of social annotation. In fact, the practice is ancient, dating back to a long history of people scribbling in the margins of books. We see this from family cookbooks to medieval European texts. Fast-forward to today where there are several tools that enable anyone to socially and collaboratively annotate the web.

Hypothesis is Kalir’s tool of choice. It is free, and truly open (open source, open code). What’s more, it is multimodal: aside from highlighting text and leaving digital sticky notes, students and educators can respond with YouTube videos, GIFs, or emojis. There are also ways to fully integrate Hypothesis into Canvas, as well as other tools.

Getting Started

To get started, I recommend having students first annotate your course syllabus. Using the free Hypothesis tool DocDrop, any PDF -- your syllabus, an article you are using for your course -- can be dragged in, thus creating a unique link for your students. You can make the document public or private, sharing a simple password with students.

In addition to annotating documents, any website can be marked up as well. Hypothesis can be added as a Chrome browser extension, enabling anyone, anywhere to annotate a website.

Having students annotate a syllabus is a low-stakes way to scaffold its use later in courses. Once students grow accustomed, consider inviting the author of articles to engage in discussions. This past fall I invited Annotation coauthor Garcia to respond to questions as well as to annotate “Dear Future President of the United States”: Analyzing Youth Civic Writing Within the 2016 Letters to the Next President Project, an article he cowrote that was published in SAGE, and with AERA.

Having authors as guest annotators piqued student interest, and created an engaging and unique conversation, much more than had this been linked on a discussion board. After having students collaboratively annotate, Crowdlaaers, a free analytic tool, or “crowd layers” dashboard where educators and researchers can track activity.

To learn more on having students annotate syllabi, check out Kalir’s blog post, Annotate Your Syllabus 2.0.