Make Educational Resources Affordable

Open Educational Resources (OER) are:

  1. Any material used for teaching and learning purposes, including syllabi, textbooks, videos, wikis, lectures, and question banks
  2. Learning objects shared under an intellectual property license (usually Creative Commons) that allows that material to be freely used, edited, or shared without restriction

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OER programming here at IU focuses on student belonging and cost-savings. For more information about open educational resources here at IU, please refer to our LibGuides. They cover topics such as finding, evaluating, and creating open course materials as well as affordable alternatives.

OER, Student Success, & IU

On March 29th 2024, the Scholarly Communication Department participated in Friday Finish by asking students to answer a short survey on textbook costs to determine the impact of course material costs for IU students. Over 82 students participated in the survey, and we were able to talk about their experiences with textbook costs. We found that IU students spend an average of $200 per academic term on required course materials with some students reporting course material costs as high as $1,700 for the Spring Semester. 

Read more about rising course material costs