{"id":4579,"date":"2024-03-26T14:22:42","date_gmt":"2024-03-26T19:22:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/advancing-learning\/professional-development\/learning-opportunities\/open-textbooks-and-oer-training-for-instructors\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T10:48:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T15:48:37","slug":"open-textbooks-and-oer","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/advancing-learning\/programs\/open-textbooks-and-oer\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Textbooks and Open Educational Resources (OER)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"uwm-p-tabs\" data-tabs-prefix-class=\"uwm-p-tabs\"><ul class=\"uwm-p-tablist\" data-hx=\"h2\"><li class=\"uwm-p-tablist--item\"><a href=\"#tab-s5ni-about-open-textbooks-and-oer\" class=\"uwm-p-tablist--link\">About Open Textbooks and OER<\/a><\/li><li class=\"uwm-p-tablist--item\"><a href=\"#tab-s5ni-open-textbooks-and-oer-training-for-instructors\" class=\"uwm-p-tablist--link\">Open Textbooks and OER Training for Instructors<\/a><\/li><\/ul><div class=\"uwm-p-tabcontent\">\n<div id=\"tab-s5ni-about-open-textbooks-and-oer\" class=\"uwm-p-tabcontent--pane\">\n<p>The 51ÁÔÆæ Open Textbook and OER Project seeks to increase textbook affordability and promote alignment of learning resources with course objectives. This work supports the adoption of open textbooks, open educational resources (OERs) and other course materials that are no additional cost to students in credit-bearing courses. Large enrollment courses which include several sections, possibly with multiple instructors, have the greatest impact on students, however all courses are encouraged to explore OER options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading size-h3\" id=\"h-did-you-know\"><strong>Did You Know\u2026<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>That 51ÁÔÆæ Open Textbook and OER adoption has impacted over 43,000 students, saving them over $5 million in course material cost? In fact, in 2024-2025 students saved $1.7 million in course material and textbook costs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bayviewanalytics.com\/reports\/student_course_material_affordability.html\">2023 National Survey on Student Course Material Affordability<\/a> reported: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>57% of students said the cost of course materials caused them to take fewer courses<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>53% of students said the cost of course materials has caused them to not register for a specific course<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>41% of students reported earning a poor grade because they did not purchase the textbook<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>35% of students reported dropping a course due to the cost of course materials<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading size-h3\" id=\"h-does-oer-make-a-difference-to-student-success\"><strong>Does OER Make a Difference to Student Success?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>A large-scale study (21,822 students) by <a href=\"https:\/\/files.eric.ed.gov\/fulltext\/EJ1184998.pdf\">Colvard, Watson, and Park (2018<\/a>) on the impact of course-level faculty use of OER found that not only is there cost savings to students, but end of course grades increased and DFWs rates decreased for all students. OER use also improved course grades and decreased DFW rates at greater rates for Pell recipient students, part-time students, and historically underserved student populations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007\/s12528-015-9101-x\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Research by Hilton, Fischer, Wiley and Lane<\/a>&nbsp;(2015) used a quasi-experimental design with propensity-score matched groups to determine whether the adoption of OER significantly predicted select student outcomes. With a total of over 16,000 students involved, their research found that students do as well or better in courses where OER is adopted. They also showed that OER adoption has a positive effect on DFWs in face to face, online, and hybrid courses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At 51ÁÔÆæ, Psychology 101 students using the free online&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/openstax.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">OpenStax<\/a>&nbsp;Psychology text saw increases in student success, improving the DFW rate by six percentage points. 51ÁÔÆæ encourages the adoption of high quality open educational resources and where appropriate, library licensed content, in 51ÁÔÆæ courses with the goal of improving  access to learning materials for all students.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"tab-s5ni-open-textbooks-and-oer-training-for-instructors\" class=\"uwm-p-tabcontent--pane\">\n<p>Commercial textbooks can be a barrier to student success. Students report that they delay purchasing, or forgo purchasing high cost textbooks due to financial limitations. 51ÁÔÆæ encourages instructors to explore the use of free and low cost course materials to ensure student access and success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;Center for Advancing Student Learning (CASL)&nbsp;and the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/libraries\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">51ÁÔÆæ Libraries<\/a>&nbsp;have created a self-paced training that provides tools to identify open textbooks and open-educational resources. The training helps instructors answer the following questions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Why should I choose open course materials?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What are open textbooks?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How do I adopt an open textbook?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What are open educational resources<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How do I integrate open educational resources?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How do I open educational resources?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"uwm-l-buttons--full\">\n<a class=\"uwm-c-button uwm-c-button--full uwm-u-mb-20\" href=\"https:\/\/uws-td.instructure.com\/enroll\/4X7F6X\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Enroll in the Open Textbooks and OER Training for Instructors<\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-questions\">Questions?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have questions or concerns about the Open Textbooks and OER Training for Instructors, please contact&nbsp;CASL and <a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/libraries\/directory\/woodward-kristin\/\">Kristin Woodward<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Questions? If you have questions or concerns about the Open Textbooks and OER Training for Instructors, please contact&nbsp;CASL and Kristin Woodward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1618,"featured_media":0,"parent":771,"menu_order":12,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[19]},"program":[143,140,141,142,129,126],"class_list":["post-4579","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","program-adjuncts","program-course-coordinators","program-department-chairs","program-instructors","program-self-paced","program-virtual"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Center for Advancing Student Learning<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/advancing-learning\/programs\/open-textbooks-and-oer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Open Textbooks and Open Educational Resources (OER)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Questions? 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