Nine Faculty Members Awarded OER Grant, Saving Students More Than $70,000

Nine faculty members in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHaSS) at Utah State University were awarded grants to support adopting, adapting or creating Open Educational Resources (OER) for two semesters. The faculty members are on track to save their students more than $70,000 by using OER.

“This OER grant is terrific news, and we’re happy to be a part of it,” said Matthew Sanders, associate dean of CHaSS. “Students deserve to have high-quality learning materials that don’t impose significant financial burdens. As a college, we feel strongly that using OER textbooks and materials is an important move that we need to begin making.”

OER are openly licensed, online educational materials for people everywhere to share, use and remix. The OER CHaSS grant encourages instructor experimentation and innovation in using OER in their classrooms. To be awarded the grant, faculty had to propose a plan to either adopt an existing OER resource into their course, adapt an OER to fit their course’s needs, or create from the ground up an OER where none currently exists.

“We’re excited to work with CHaSS in helping OER gain stronger footing in the USU community,” said Erin Davis, regional campuses and e-learning librarian. “OER remove many of the barriers that make it difficult for students to access course material, such as the cost or the availability of the material. Students who are enrolled in classes that implement OER have immediate access to the required course materials.”

The grants were established by a partnership with the Utah State University Libraries, Academic and Instructional Services and CHaSS. One of the major benefits of OER for faculty is the increased academic freedom to design a course the way they want, rather than being dictated by a traditional textbook.

For more information on OER, visit oer.usu.edu.

Contact: Erin Davis, 435-797-2075