The outrageous price that college students have to pay for textbooks has been a burden for decades, but never before has the cost of textbooks been as painfully high as it is today. It is a growing concern that there are an ever-increasing number of students that have to go without their required course text because they can simply no longer afford it. The higher education community must take bold new steps to combat this issue and LeadMN is committed to driving that effort.
Open Education Resources Video
OERs Around the Country
University of Massachusetts Amherst
This University launched the Open Education Initiative in 2011, a competitive grant that incentives faculty to make the switch to OER’s. This program has saved students more than $1.5 million.
Tidewater Community College in Virginia
This college partnered with Lumen Learning to launch a textbook-free degree in Business Administration. 98% of students said the classes were of equal or better quality than traditional courses.
Tacoma Community College
This college, located in Washington State, hired a full-time staff person to serve as a resource to faculty developing and implementing open textbooks. The program has saved students more than $635,000 is the first two years.
Dalton State University
This university, located in Georgia, recently received Affordable Learning Georgia grants to launch open textbooks. Student savings are expected to be over $1 million in the first three years.
University of Maryland System
The Maryland Open-Source Textbook (MOST) initiative started in 2013 as a work plan to develop faculty and assess the feasibility of open textbooks, and since then is estimated to have saved students over $1 million.