UGA adoption of Open Educational Resources (OER)

It’s no secret that a college education is becoming increasingly more costly. In an effort to ease some of the extra financial encumber to students, faculty and staff at the University of Georgia piloted the use of Open Educational Resources (OERs) in large enrollment core classes.

OERs are essentially free textbooks that are easily accessed, redistributed, revised, and remixed. Over one-third of students attending the University of Georgia who responded to the National Survey of Student Engagement reported having unmet financial need that made pursing a degree difficult. Textbooks typically cost students several hundred dollars each semester, so OERs are a means for potentially saving students a significant amount of money. By targeting large enrollment core classes that would typically use an expensive textbook, UGA maximized their cost saving efforts.

Many students were not only grateful for the cost savings, but also felt that the OER textbooks were of great quality. “The reading materials for this course were AMAZING.  I’m not just saying that because I didn’t have to pay for a textbook (although that was nice) but because I could be certain what I was reading was both relevant and the best source of information for the topic we were discussing. I was extremely grateful for this form of reading.” - EDUC 2120 student, Spring 2015

The implementation of OERs has been supported by an Innovation grant from the University System of Georgia, as well as a CTL Leaning Technologies Grants, an Affordable Learning Georgia grant, and a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Next Generation Courseware grant. The implementation of OERs did not require the all of the money from these grants, and UGA initiated several other projects with the help of these grants as well.

Overall, UGA faculty and students have found OERs to be both academically rigorous and effective at reducing the financial burden to students. By the end of the 2015-2016 school year, UGA estimates that OERs will have saved students 2 million dollars in textbook costs since the start of the program in 2013.

If you’re considering implementing OERs on your campus, faculty recommend that departmental buy-in on OERs is useful. Otherwise the faculty member might be faced with push back when s/he assigns what some faculty might deem a less-than reputable (free) textbook. For more information, here is a list of UGA faculty, courses, and the OER that they selected.  

Other Contacts

• Dr. Deanna Cozart, Coordinator of Open Educational Resources at UGA
• Dr. Eddie Watson, Director of CTL at UGA

Other Resources

• Lumen Leaning Tool to estimate the cost impact of adopting OERs

For a look at the various large enrollment classes that switched to OERs and the cost savings impact:

*Core courses included in Areas A – E of the General Education Core Curriculum

**Area F Core Courses for students in the College of Education