Why should I use Open Educational Resources (OER) for my class?

Faculty engage with Open Education for many different reasons. Two or the most common reasons concern student affordability and transformative teaching and learning:

Reduce Textbook Costs

Many alternatives to the for-profit textbook publishing landscape have emerged in the last decade, allowing faculty to easily find and use current, high-quality, free online Open Educational Resources for their courses.  A substantial body of scholarship has established the significant impact to student success caused by runaway textbook costs, particularly in the cases of students historically underrepresented within higher education. 

• Textbook costs have outpaced inflation by 300% over the last 30 years.
• Students spend an average of $1,200 per year on textbooks.
• 48% of students choose courses based on textbook costs.
• 20% of students failed a course because they could not afford the textbook.
• 7 out of 10 students have forgone purchasing college textbooks because of cost, according to a recent PIRG survey on 13 college campuses.

Are you interested in adopting Open Educational Resources into your course? Please click here to find out further information. 

Open Pedagogy

Open pedagogy is the practice of engaging with students as creators of information rather than simply consumers of it. It's a form of experiential learning in which students demonstrate understanding through the act of creation. The products of open pedagogy are student created and openly licensed so that they may live outside of the classroom in a way that has an impact on the greater community.

Open projects frequently result in the creation of open educational resources (OER). OER are free teaching and learning materials that are licensed to allow for revision and reuse. They can be fully self-contained textbooks, videos, quizzes, learning modules, and more.

Learn more about Open Pedagogy and how various NC State Faculty have incorporated Open Education into their classrooms.