Open Educational Resources

A bi-weekly newsletter for open education updates, opportunities, and reminders.

January 13, 2024
Aligned with the objectives of the International Decade for Indigenous Languages (IDIL2022-2032) Global Action Plan, there is a call to leverage Open Educational Resources, as outlined in the 2019 Recommendation on OER. The aim is to integrate Indigenous Peoples' culture, history and knowledge into educational curricula.

January 16, 2024
West Texas A&M University students will be provided textbooks for all core curriculum courses beginning in fall 2024, President Walter V. Wendler announced in a Jan. 16 memo.

February 2, 2024
Faculty members Laurie M. Apple, M.E. Betsy Garrison, Wendy L. McBride and Lynn Meade each published an open textbook in 2023 through participation in the U of A's Course Materials Conversion Program, a collaborative effort between the University Libraries and Global Campus. Each of the four texts is available online at no cost to users.

The home of the Annual Celebration of Open Educational Resources worldwide! Global events for Open Ed Week includes over 90 events and is happening March 4-8, 2024.

March 30, 2023
See how another College Professor is using OER materials within his own teaching.

May 8, 2023
Includes several strategies to using OER materials.

June 1, 2023
The UNESCO OER Dynamic Coalition organized a webinar on 4 May 2023 to highlight the effective use of open licenses in promoting inclusive knowledge societies. Open solutions refer to digital public goods that are available under open licenses, respecting the intellectual property rights of the copyright owner. These solutions enable users to reuse, repurpose, adapt and redistribute content.

September 7, 2023
A study finds increasing levels of buy-in of open resources, with about three in 10 instructors requiring OER in their courses.

September 15, 2023

December 7, 2023

February 20, 2020
A multi-layered, multi-year study on the use of open educational resources found that in some colleges, students who took multiple OER courses earned more credits on average over time than similar students who took no OER courses.

February 20, 2020
Students who took multiple community college courses that used only free or low-cost OER materials earned more credits over time than their peers who took classes that used traditional course materials such as textbooks, according to a new study.

February 20, 2020
Community college students taking multiple OER courses earned more credits and similar grades than students who took no OER courses and reported high engagement with course materials; effort saved students $10.7 million and was cost-effective for colleges.

March 10, 2020
Awareness and adoption of open educational resources continue to grow, a new report suggests. But the movement could be overshadowed by publisher initiatives like inclusive access.

January 25, 2020
The “Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) Market” report includes a comprehensive analysis of the current market status, major key players, latest challenges and opportunities in the market.

February 20, 2020
On average, colleges spent about $70 per student on developing OERs, which mostly went toward paying faculty to develop the courses. Researchers estimated there was an average of $1.03 in gross revenue generated for every dollar spent on redesigning courses.

February 5, 2020
A recently released study showed that an investment by the state of Oregon in promoting textbook affordability has led to a dramatic drop in the cost of course materials for transfer degrees.

March 3, 2020
Open educational resources have gone global and may help make learning more accessible, equitable and inclusive around the world.

February 9, 2020
OER Commons, an organization focused on creating open educational resources (OER), has developed an editing tool named Open Author.

February 20, 2020
A new study of an initiative focused on developing academic pathways for courses that use open education resources (OER) shows promising results for the programs, but they also face challenges in continuing.

March 24, 2020
In the last five years, more faculty at higher education institutions are choosing to make the shift from the use of print to digital textbooks, according to new research by Bay View Analytics.

March 11, 2020
Bay View Analytics study finds growing concerns among faculty regarding the cost to students of course materials

February 4, 2020
Top Hat, an ed tech company that specializes in creating open educational resources (OER), announced Tuesday that it raised $55 million in Series D funding.

June 1, 2020
In addition, more than 70 percent of students in the survey said they did not register for a course because of the cost of the textbook. Approximately 60 percent said they completed a class without actually purchasing the text, which creates academic challenges for the students and their instructors.

March 13, 2020
From March 2 to March 6, librarians at the Claremont Colleges Library celebrated Open Education Week in order to promote one way to avoid resorting to expensive textbooks or internet piracy: Open Educational Resources.

June 18, 2020

May 5, 2020
Publishers Cengage and McGraw-Hill Education have terminated plans to merge after scrutiny from regulators

March 13, 2019
The Consortium for Open Active Pathways unites ASU and three of the nation’s largest community college systems.

April 5, 2019
Bill would significantly reduce higher education costs and support student success.

August 15, 2019
For the fourth consecutive year, LendEDU is pleased to once again publish our annual Student Loan Debt by School by State Report, an in-depth analysis of student loan debt figures at nearly 1,000 four-year private and public higher education institutions across the United States.

September 13, 2019
When Natalie Flynn surveyed students in her Temple University intro to physical geology classes, she found half weren’t buying the textbook she used because they couldn’t afford it.

June 12, 2019
Faculty Select makes it easy for faculty to explore Open Educational Resources (OER) and purchasable DRM-free e-books to support their courses.

January 9, 2019
Babson Survey Research Group study finds faculty also tend to make changes to textbooks in ways that align with OER use.

September 18, 2019
Everything you need to know.

April 4, 2019
A two-year study reveals that instructors found OER materials helped them make positive changes to their teaching.

September 13, 2019
Macmillan Learning announced the availability of Intellus Search, a new search engine designed to make it simpler for instructors to discover free and relevant supplemental materials.

September 11, 2019
This year, over 90 percent of students will log on to free textbooks digitally in some way — through a website, PDF, or on OpenStax, the release states, and OpenStax new app received almost 58,000 downloads in just a month.

February 26, 2019
Education Department apparently disregards congressional instructions for spending 2019 money, dividing $5 million between Arizona State University and Chippewa Valley Technical College.

July 15, 2019
Pearson announced it will adopt a “digital first” approach to updating its higher ed course materials, meaning that any revisions or changes to textbook content will happen first in the digital version.

May 7, 2019
Marking another major strategic move in recent weeks among academic publishers, John Wiley & Sons announced Monday that it will acquire the assets of Knewton, a firm specializing in adaptive learning technology and open educational resources (OER).

August 1, 2019
Student and consumer groups are pushing back on a proposed merger between education publishing giants McGraw-Hill and Cengage, according to letters sent to the Department of Justice earlier this week.

September 30, 2019
This year’s report examines the current state of OER activities featuring data from 132 institutions in the U.S. and Canada.

April 17, 2019
Meeting instructors where they are can be challenging -- but figuring out how they learn best can be crucial, according to leaders of professional development initiatives.

December 16, 2019
Institutions in many jurisdictions are in the process of implementing Open Educational Resources (OER). This short paper is based on a report commissioned by Contact North/Contact Nord as part of their Pockets of Innovation series to better understand the impact of OER implementations at diverse institutions.

February 22, 2019
More than 2.2 million college students used [Openstax] service last year, according to the organization, saving an estimated $177 million compared to what it would have cost to use commercial textbooks, which average $78 each.

August 21, 2018
Agreement between MBS Textbook Exchange and OpenStax Gives Students Greater Access to Affordable Course Materials

October 30, 2018
The number of colleges running efforts to help professors shift from published textbooks to low-cost online materials known as OER is growing rapidly.

December 4, 2018
CESA has released four open educational resource courses for everyone to freely access.

August 31, 2018
When an e-textbook at one university was priced at $999, students expressed outrage on social media. Cost can be a significant barrier, and most professors just want their students to have any version of the textbook, regardless of format.

December 21, 2018
Portland, Ore.-based startup Lumen Learning has reeled in more investment to grow its open digital education course material platform.

August 30, 2018
Among many things, Joint Roadmap for Open Science Tools (JROST) members came together to consider where they might collaborate and innovate to solve problems for scientists and further their shared goals in achieving an open, transparent, and non-profit vision for scholarly communications.

August 2, 2018
The Rice University-based OER publisher reported that students across 5,160 colleges and universities are saving a combined $177 million on its textbooks.

December 10, 2018
Open educational resources can provide access to high-quality resources while offsetting the costs of traditional textbooks. An array of costs are associated with the "free" approach, however, and institutions that are successful with OER understand that moving to open resources requires extensive planning, selection, management, and maintenance.

October 24, 2018
One popular draw to open educational resources is that these openly-licensed learning materials can—and are often encouraged to—be tailored for a particular professor or course. But at religious institutions, adapting open materials for a faith-based curriculum can be trickier.

September 17, 2018
A good OER plan addresses resources, systems, training, assessment, and priorities.

October 12, 2018
Open educational resources (OER) not only save students money, they produce significant benefits in instruction and student learning experiences, according to a new study from Achieving the Dream (ATD).

July 23, 2018
A University of Georgia study found that open educational resources improved end-of-course grades for undergraduates and lowered D, F and withdrawal rates.

September 14, 2018
The College Board reports that four-year university students living on campus spend an average of $1,250 a year on books and supplies. The cost of textbooks, as with other higher-education costs, has risen rapidly over the past few decades, at a rate more than three times that of inflation. That is why Virginia recently passed legislation (HB 454) to mandate that every public institution of higher education in the state create a framework to adopt and use open educational resources and low-cost resources across the state.

November 16, 2018
North Dakota students saved more than $1 million on textbooks after the state invested just $110,000 to help instructors use open educational resources. Audit identifies successes and ongoing challenges.

December 3, 2018
At one Massachusetts college, students are saving over $100,000 each year on textbooks. Here's how.

August 6, 2018
OpenStax, a nonprofit initiative started by Rice University in 2012 to provide free textbooks and digital resources, is growing and helping to impact the cost of a college education