Open and Affordable Educational Resources

  Adopt

Adopting is the easiest way to implement OER and affordable materials in your course. As with any other instructional material, if you like it, use it!

Examples:

• Link to the library version of a New York Times article so students don't hit a paywall.
• Assign a library eBook instead of a book students have to purchase.
• Switch to using an OpenStax textbook that comes with all activities, lesson plans, and instruction materials.
• Assign an open resource created by a UMD faculty member.

  Adapt/Remix

If you can't find anything that meets your needs as-is, you can customize existing OER materials by editing, remixing, and adapting them. This can range from small tweaks to larger overhauls.

Examples:

• Create a condensed version of a comprehensive OER textbook by deleting the content you don't cover in your course.
• Change the format: Record an OER textbook chapter as a podcast or video. This can enhance accessibility and meet different learning needs, especially if you offer students multiple options.
• Add language or scenarios that are more relevant for UMD students.
• Build an OER coursepack: Mix, match, and modify existing OER to meet your needs, and link to affordable (library and free online) materials to fill in any gaps.

Consider applying for a mini-grant to support your OER project.

(NOTE: Only materials that are openly licensed can be adapted, modified, and remixed. This is not generally available for library resources and most online content.)

  Create

If there are no high-quality OER available on your topic or if you have course materials that you believe are superior to the OER available to you online, you may want to consider creating or licensing your own course materials. This form of scholarly output enhances the quality of OER available in your discipline, benefiting your peers and the wider public.

Examples:

• Write a traditional textbook and publish it in Google Sites with an open license.
• Add an open license to a worksheet or video you've already created, and publish it in an OER repository.
• Design an OER simulation game, pilot it in one class session, and scale it up next year.

Consider applying for a mini-grant to support your OER project.

Open Pedagogy

Open pedagogy is a high-impact teaching practice that engages students as researchers and co-creators of knowledge as part of their coursework. In addition to the potential for improving learning outcomes, student involvement can help keep course materials relevant and current over time.

Examples:

• Run a Wikipedia assignment.
• Have students design test questions and publish these as an open test bank.
• Have students write more relevant or current word problems for their OER textbook.
• Have students record and openly publish a series of podcasts about the class topic.

The 5 Rs of OER

Learning materials benefit from customization, collaboration, and open access. Open licensing helps unlock this potential. Known as the "5 Rs," the affordances of open licensing allow creators and users to...

1. Retain: Make, own, and control a copy of a resource, forever.
2. Revise: Edit, adapt, and modify a copy of the resource.
3. Remix: Combine an original or revised copy of the resource with other existing material to create something new.
4. Reuse: Use an original, revised, or remixed copy of the resource publicly, like on a website, in a presentation, or in class.
5. Redistribute: Share copies of the original, revised, or remixed copy of the resource with others.

Adapted from David Wiley, https://opencontent.org/definition, CC BY 4.0

Affordability

"Students can't learn from materials they can't afford."
-- Nicole Allen, SPARC

OER means that students have day one access to course materials, for free. And, while commercial e-textbooks are increasingly offered only through short-term individual subscriptions, students can keep their OER materials forever.

The University of Maryland estimates that students spend an average of $1,250 on textbooks and supplies per year, and these costs directly impact learning outcomes. A 2014 Maryland PIRG survey at UMD found that:

• 65% of students have skipped purchasing a required textbook due to cost.

• 48% of students consider textbook costs when enrolling in their courses.

• 82% of students said they would do significantly better in a course if the textbook were free online and a hard copy was optional.

In the decade since, the cost of living has skyrocketed and prospective U.S. college students express waning confidence in the value of higher education. Amid this complex landscape, textbook affordability has remained a top priority for UMD's Student Government Association and MaryPIRG.

The Maryland Textbook Transparency Act of 2020, which will eventually require the University to clearly indicate textbook prices in the course catalog, may substantially affect student registration decisions.

Learn More

Student Engagement & Equity

"I really liked the OER my professor used this semester. It lined up with how he taught the class and all of the quizzes and homework, so I actually read it. I had another class where I bought the textbook but we barely used it at all."
-- UMD student

Maryland students are already benefiting from the use of OER in their classrooms. According to 2016-2023 assessment data from the Maryland Open Source Textbook (M.O.S.T.) initiative, 52% of students statewide reported using their traditional course materials 2-3 times per month or less, whereas 66% said they used open and affordable materials 2-3 times per week or more.

Simply adopting and assigning OER will ensure that more students can access course material and meet learning objectives.

However, OER can also be customized to address relevant local contexts or incorporate more marginalized perspectives, increasing students' sense of belonging in the classroom.

You can even engage students in the process of creating or updating OER through open pedagogical practices. Students can curate resource lists; annotate OER content; write new scenarios, word problems, and test questions; or even openly publish their projects. Open pedagogy can foster an increased sense of ownership over the learning process, and it's also a way to address concepts like accessibility, copyright, privacy, and the ethical reuse of content.

Author's Rights & Intellectual Freedom

When deciding whether to publish learning materials openly or commercially, it's worth weighing your options!

If you publish a textbook commercially, you'll likely earn royalties from sales, and you'll probably receive more support with the publishing process. However, you'll also transfer your copyright to the publisher, which will make it harder for you and your students to access or share that content -- there will simply be more restrictions around its use.

Open publishing isn't right for every situation, but it does come with certain advantages. You can:

• Create content that aligns with your teaching approach, addresses gaps in your field, or centers more diverse, inclusive, or locally-relevant perspectives.
• Easily edit and update your work forever -- to reflect new developments, changing landscapes, or different approaches.
• Retain control over the content you create, allowing you to convert your OER into different formats; translate your work; and create derivative works (e.g., a longer, book-length work). You can also use your OER for AI training and data mining, while retaining much more control over the process.
• Legally share copies of your work with students, colleagues, and peers at UMD and beyond.
• Sell your work or its derivatives commercially. For instance, you can provide a free online version of a textbook but offer print copies for sale.

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Public Impact

Academic content is often made inaccessible, hidden behind paywalls and institutional logins. Openly licensed content adds to the body of high-quality work in your discipline, reaching a wider audience.

Through the use and creation of OER, you can:

• Showcase Maryland innovation and pedagogy customized for local contexts.
• Accompany and disseminate your research and scholarship.
• Increase the visibility of your work.
• Contribute to the public good and to research, teaching, and learning globally.
• Combat misinformation and enhance the quality of public discourse.