Academic Libraries: Lowering the Cost of Education One Textbook at a Time

With students increasingly buried under crushing debt for their college education, open educational resources (OER) attempt to lower their costs by using free, openly licensed alternatives. Many academic libraries nationally are encouraging faculty to ditch the expensive textbooks and incentivizing the adoption of OER in the classroom, or offering Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) to increase access to education to all. This program will offer attendees an overview of OER, how libraries can encourage faculty to adopt OER, and discuss programs in place at Oklahoma State University and Arizona State University