Open educational resources at Indiana University are a way to ensure textbook costs and access to resources are not financial barriers for students. Photo by Ellie Pursley, IU Libraries

Textbook costs can be a barrier to our students. At IU Libraries, we are committed to providing a variety of tools and resources that empower learners and facilitate access to research. But we can do no great thing on our own; we need your help.

Since 2019, we have been leveraging IU Libraries’ collections and expertise to raise awareness and interest in open education and affordable course material access initiatives. Recent studies demonstrate how the rising costs of textbooks and other required course materials are a significant barrier to student persistence and success. Many of our learners at all levels who struggle to pay for textbooks may attempt to cut costs by buying used, older versions of materials, sharing materials with classmates or waiting to purchase materials until they are sure they will need it for their classes.

Diane Dallis-Comentale. Photo by IU LibrariesIU Libraries’ open education and affordable access initiatives support Bloomington instructors in adopting, adapting or creating low- and zero-cost course materials. This includes open educational resources. OER licensing allows instructors to customize the content to suit their specific context and classroom, while also being free of cost and access barriers for students.

As our campus celebrates Open Education Week, March 3 to 7, we invite you to hear from three instructors who developed open educational resources for their courses. During a panel session on March 5, they’ll discuss how students have responded to these materials. If you’d like to learn more about IU Libraries’ open education initiatives, check out our guide on how to make educational resources more affordable.

Our Course Materials Fellowships offer resources, training and support to instructors who want to create their own open educational resource. Now entering its fifth year, the products of the fellowship program have saved 11,500 IU students over $1.3 million. The fellowship’s sister program, the OER Summer Sprints, focuses on adapting currently available open educational resources rather than creating new ones.

As open educational resources become more broadly available in a diverse range of disciplines, this option allows instructors to modify currently available texts to suit their syllabus and pedagogy without the need to develop all of their own content and materials. By integrating open educational resources into their courses, the first Summer Sprints cohort of four instructors saved 1,426 students over $165,000.

IU Libraries will host a new cohort of OER Summer Sprint instructors this year. Apply to participate by completing the OER Summer Sprint application by March 15.

We are working with instructors in an increasing variety of disciplines, thanks to the rapidly growing inventory of relevant, existing open educational resources for their courses. For instructors who aren’t able to invest time in creating or adapting an open educational resources, the simple adoption of a currently available resource has the same impact on student savings and student learning. Working together, we can broaden use of open educational resources on the Bloomington campus, alleviating costs and ensuring day-one access for all students.

IU Libraries is also engaged in a partnership with the IU Bookstore to identify non-textbook course materials that can be licensed as e-books at no cost to students. Ahead of each semester, the IU Bookstore supplies data from course material orders and, where possible, the Libraries purchase multi-user, digital rights management-free e-books that are listed on IU instructors’ syllabi. These multi-user e-books make it possible for all students to access IU Libraries’ digital copy at the same time. In the past two years, this program has saved 11,913 IU students $662,424.

We are so thankful to all of the early adopters on our campus, and our incredibly generous donors who have helped us initiate these important programs. We are delighted to see the acceleration of open educational resources adoption happening on our campus. We know that when instructors maximize access to IU Libraries’ resources, our support increases flexibility in the classroom, contributes meaningfully to student learning and reduces the costs of course materials for our students.

Thank you for partnering with us.

Diane Dallis-Comentale is the Ruth Lilly Dean of IU Libraries.