Affordable Course Materials in Unaffordable Times
Abstract
Challenges have always surrounded OERs, today we are faced with even more challenges as we navigate a landscape of budget cuts, lack of grant opportunities, and attacks on DEIA. Amid this negative climate we are more than ever in a space to bring about something positive for our students in the UC system.
At UC Irvine, we recently completed a faculty incentive initiative to move course materials to open or library-licensed materials. We awarded three grants in as many years. However, in exploring this topic further we were able to see the vast work that the faculty are doing behind the scenes. More than half of the bookstore’s grid each quarter for the last fiscal year are courses with no required textbooks, and those noting their course uses open educational resources (OER) is slowly increasing.
We are interested in hearing how other UC campuses approach affordability efforts and library-licensed course materials, including:
- How does your campus prioritize affordable course materials?
- Do the course reserve notes in your catalog expire each term, or are they visible for students to view yearlong, aiding student decision-making when registering for courses?
- Do you detail low-cost courses outside of UC Library Search and if so, how?
- How do you work with the Learning Center at your campus to encourage OER or library licensed material for new or UC wide courses?
- Are libraries informed when faculty depend on journals or eBooks for course materials? How might we establish processes to ensure that these resources remain available despite budget cuts?
- How are libraries anticipating changes to affordability efforts within the climate of budget cuts?