Open and Affordable Educational Resources

SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) is a major advocate for open knowledge of all kinds. Sign up for their Open Education Forum listserv to connect with other OER practitioners and learn about open resources and opportunities.

The Maryland Open Source Textbook (M.O.S.T.) initiative supports long-term, statewide scaling and sustainability of OER to increase access, affordability, and achievement for Maryland higher education students. Sign up for updates: https://www.oer-maryland.org/contact/. You may also want to share information on their annual OER grants with instructors, view names of past UMD grantees, or apply yourself: https://www.oer-maryland.org/support-sustain/most-oer-grant-program/

The M.O.S.T. OER Commons is a database of OER created/used at Maryland institutions or curated from relevant collections and repositories. It's a great starting point for finding OER to adopt or adapt. We are working to publish more UMD-created OER here, as well.

Creative Commons' website is a robust and straightforward source for open licensing knowledge.

As a member of the Open Education Network, UMD College Park has access to OER support, resources, and professional development opportunities. Check out the OEN's well-known Open Textbook Library. If you'd like an even deeper dive, their full Certificate in Open Education Librarianship curriculum is offered openly on Canvas.

An annual celebration, Open Education Week (OE Week) is an opportunity for actively sharing and learning about the latest achievements in open education worldwide.

Website for one of the largest conferences in the field of open education. Visit their YouTube library to explore conference presentations on different topics in open ed.

Definitions and explanations about OER and affordable course materials, including key differences and similarities

This extensive and approachable guide helps OER authors and implementers navigate fair use and copyright

Outlines the findings of a 2021 task force that investigated affordable course resources and OER at UMD. Authored by Gary White (Senior Associate Dean of Research and Academic Services, UMD Libraries) and Mary Warneka (Associate Director of Learning Experience, UMD TLTC).

Guidance to help faculty and staff advocate for the inclusion of open educational practices (OEP) in promotion, tenure, and faculty evaluation processes

UMD students and the Student Government Association continue to prioritize textbook affordability and OER adoption

Outlines MaryPIRG's and other student-run efforts for course material affordability at UMD

This 2020 bill requires each University System of Maryland institution to develop a method to clearly and conspicuously show students in the online course catalog which courses use free or low-cost digital materials and may provide access to certain low-cost print materials (AKA "course marking"). It also mandates that certain course resources be equally accessible and usable by individuals with disabilities. One potential area of OER advocacy for the Libraries is to work with stakeholders to implement this at UMD.

“Inclusive access,” also known as automatic textbook billing, is a textbook sales model that adds the cost of digital course content into students’ tuition and fees. This quick guide from SPARC discusses challenges with this model and how to have effective conversations about it on campus.

Open-access lesson plans for information literacy and library instruction

ACRL repository for sharing Framework-based instructional materials. Use the "License Assigned" filter to limit to OER materials.