Summary
OTC saves students more than $1 million by adopting Open Educational Resources. Open Educational Resources are no-cost teaching, learning and research materials.
Many people can recall spending hundreds of dollars on a college textbook and then choosing to sell it back for pennies on the dollar at the end of the semester or keep it.
Now, thanks to Open Education Resources (OER), students never have to make that choice.
Open Educational Resources are no-cost teaching, learning and research materials. OER learning tools are either in the public domain or are released under an intellectual property license, allowing their use.
“Open Educational Resources are high-quality, peer-reviewed materials that save students money,” said Sarah Mabee, college director of the Ozarks Technical Community College libraries. “OER supplies are especially impactful for community college students who tend to be some of the most under-resourced students in higher education.”
Since 2019, Ozarks Technical Community College has saved its students more than $1 million through OER resources. For the fall 2023 semester, OER materials positively impacted more than 6,000 students.
“Most of my students have never owned a physical textbook due to the shift to online resources,” said Daniel Kopsas, OTC mathematics instructor. “Besides saving our students money, faculty can customize the content of the open resources to better align with course outcomes. We do not have to tailor our class to fit the textbook of choice, but we can tailor the resources to fit the content of our class.”
The college’s courses that use no-cost materials are called “OpenOTC” classes. An OER textbook or learning resource is available to students online immediately after class begins. If a student prefers a physical copy, they may request one from the bookstore for a small fee. Students may also print the books themselves. OTC’s efforts at no or low-cost textbooks have brought the average textbook cost per course to $47 per student.
“When looking at our textbook selections, we are conscientious of many factors, and cost to our students is a top concern,” said Amy Shelley, OTC department chair for behavioral science. “If we cannot find an open-source version of a textbook that meets our course objectives, we work with publishers to find an alternative at the lowest price option that meets our needs while still significantly reducing the cost for each student.”
March 4-8 is Open Education Week. Sponsored by Open Education Global, Open Education Week aims to raise awareness about open-source educational materials.
