Open Textbooks and Open Educational Resources (OERs)

Open textbooks and OERs can increase student engagement and retention! The 2022 Florida Student Survey found that 53% of the 13,000 students surveyed did not purchase a required textbook for a course due to its cost. Because of textbook costs, forty-three percent of students in the survey took fewer courses, and twenty-four percent of students surveyed reported dropping out of a course (Florida Virtual Campus 2022).

Open textbooks and educational resources allow educators to adapt instructional resources to the individual needs of their students, including adding local contexts, ensuring that resources are up to date and that cost is not a barrier to accessing high-quality, standards-aligned resources.

Open materials are more inclusive. One of the great things about OER is that users have the right to turn it into any format they wish (which is almost always forbidden with traditional resources). Therefore, OER aren’t tied to a particular device or software, giving students more freedom in what technology they purchase and the option to print.

This guide by Jennifer Beamer is adapted from the excellent resources at Portland Community College, Virginia Tech, and UMass Amherst Libraries. The content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License originally created by Abbey Elder, librarian and OER Advocate at Iowa State University Library, inspired by this guide.