College is expensive and educational materials required by classes add to that amount.
Open Educational Resources (OER) should be widely implemented and advertised by institutions to alleviate financial burdens.
By encouraging colleges and universities to use mostly OER, students are statistically more likely to sign up for more courses, more likely to graduate and lower the institution’s retention rate, according to David Harris, editor-in-chief of OpenStax, a Rice University-based publisher.
When adopting OER, Edscoop reported that in 2016 Pasadena City College’s estimated 46,396 students saved the college more than $4 million in commercial textbooks. Pasadena City College also reported an increase in student engagement and enrollment.
Orange Coast College has the OER website on its library’s page so students can find out if their book is available for free.
Textbooks can cost each full-time community college student more than $1,000 each year. Inside Higher Ed reported that more access to OERs has saved students more than $10.7 million in learning materials across 38 colleges.
Students go to great lengths to have access to class material and will sometimes torrent textbooks, illegally download PDFs, take photos of a classmate’s textbook or go without one.
Institutionally implemented OER linked on Pierce’s library would help students.
