Nearly forty percent of CUNY students come from households with annual incomes of less than $20,000. For many of our students, the cost of textbooks can be a steep barrier to academic success. Students often choose not to register for courses that require expensive textbooks, or fail courses simply because they cannot afford the materials. These patterns can lead to increased enrollment time and reduced rates of degree completion.

One way to reduce textbook costs is to offer zero-textbook-cost classes that use Open Educational Resources (OER). OER are teaching, learning, and research tools released under licenses permitting free use/modification while ensuring authors retain copyright to their work. Open resources and pedagogy represent the future of educational technology and instructional design.

The OER initiative at Queens College has saved our students nearly $3 million in textbook fees since 2018.

What Are Open Educational Resources?

One way to reduce textbook costs is to offer zero-textbook-cost classes that use Open Educational Resources (OER). OERs are more than just free content. OERs are teaching, learning, and research tools released under licenses permitting free use/modification while ensuring authors retain copyright to their work. They do more than just save students money: they provide a way for teachers to tailor educational materials to the specific needs of their class, and to ensure that the materials they use stay up-to-date with the current research.

The “open” in “Open Educational Resources” describes educational content that is either in the public domain or licensed to allow users to retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute. David Wiley, the Chief Academic Officer of Lumen Learning, explains what these “5Rs of open content” mean:

1. Retain – the right to make, own, and control copies of the content (e.g., download, duplicate, store, and manage)
2. Reuse – the right to use the content in a wide range of ways (e.g., in a class, in a study group, on a website, in a video)
3. Revise – the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself (e.g., translate the content into another language)
4. Remix – the right to combine the original or revised content with other material to create something new (e.g., incorporate the content into a mashup)
5. Redistribute – the right to share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others (e.g., give a copy of the content to a student or friend)

While many OERs are freely available online, to make the most of these materials teachers need to think creatively about all the ways that the “5R” rights open up new pedagogical possibilities. For example, because OERs are licensed to allow you to revise and remix, you are free to update the material or modify it to suit the needs of your class. Some instructors have collaborated with students on these revisions and remixes, so students are not just downloading information, but actively creating knowledge.