The week of March 6, 2023 marks the beginning of this year’s Open Education Week, a global celebration of all types of Open Education Resources (OER).
What is OER?
According to Open Education Global (OEG), the term OER encapsulates teaching, learning and research materials that are either in the public domain or have been released under an open copyright license that allow for users to access or adapt the resources at little to no cost to them. These resources, whether they be online or in print, often include textbooks, lesson plans or even full courses.
Why is OER necessary?
Currently, five large publishers control about 80% of the textbook market (Pearson Education, McGraw-Hill Education, Scholastic, Engage Learning and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).
Since these companies are able to price textbooks as high as they choose, university students are forced to carry a heavy financial burden anytime they register for a class.
What is truly unique about the textbook industry is the fact that the actual consumers are not who the companies strive to please. Instead, these publishers focus on forging positive relationships with professors, in hopes that they will adopt their expensive books into their curriculum.
One way students have avoided high costs is by buying and selling used textbooks. Several websites, like Chegg or Half-Price Books, allow consumers to list books for a fraction of the original price.
However, certain publishers have taken steps towards eliminating the used book market altogether. In 2019, Pearson Education switched to only publishing non-resalable digital textbooks. For the books that were already printed, they began only offering a rental system. Thus, boosting their profits by forcing students to purchase their textbooks at full price.
Textbook costs have become such a large barrier for students that in 2016, about 66% of students claimed they did not even purchase the required texts. However, OER is a clear path towards making higher educational more affordable and accessible.
OER at SU
Campus administrators have an opportunity to better educate faculty about the potential benefits of these Open Access resources. If people know better, then they do better.
Dr. Michael Ozlanski, Associate Professor of Accounting
Many professors at Susquehanna are making strides towards adopting OER into their curriculum.
“You can find peer-reviewed, high quality OER content for almost every discipline,” says Dr. Heather Lang from the English department.
This is especially true on Susquehanna’s campus where numerous other departments have started using OER materials. For instance, Dr. Jennifer Carter of the physics department, Dr. Michael Ozlanski from the business school and Dr. Nick Ungson of the psychology department all utilize OER.
Although each professor has their own motivations, all four of these educators agree that affordability for students is a major reason for them adopting OER.
“I remember that I was always looking for a way to save money as a student and open resources allow me to help my students do so,” says Dr. Carter.
There are plenty of other positives these professors have noticed since using open materials. Dr. Carter values that she does not have to worry about students having the wrong version of a textbook, while both Dr. Lang and Dr. Ungson noted that open online materials are sometimes updated with new information a lot quicker than traditional textbooks.
“It’s easier for trends in the field to find their way into open materials,” says Dr. Ungson.
However, like any other educational resource, OER does have its drawbacks.
“These resources will not work for every class,” says Dr. Ozlanski. “So, it is important for everyone to recognize the limitations of Open Access resources.”
Dr. Carter has found it difficult to find useful materials for upper-level courses, like astrophysics and modern physics. Thus, meaning that certain entry level courses could have no textbook costs to students, but as they get more advanced, they will have to start paying more for materials.
Another issue that Dr. Ungson noted is not all OER is of the same quality, so it takes a lot of time to search through the numerous online resources to find beneficial materials.
Dr. Lang believes that some of these problems could be easily solved by faculty creating more OER.
“People who want to use OER resources should also make OER resources, so that we can continue to have more OER resources,” says Dr. Lang.
She has put these beliefs into practice by beginning to develop a resource for Intro to Modern Publishing (ENGL 190) that she intends to release as an OER or for a cheap cost.
Aside from the limitations of open materials, there are also barriers in place that make it difficult for faculty to use them in courses.
Dr. Ozlanski notes that a lack of OER usage may be caused by a lack of faculty knowledge.
“Previously, I honestly didn’t do enough due diligence to investigate the viability of Open Access resources, so I think that campus administrators have an opportunity to better educate faculty about the potential benefits of these Open Access resources. If people know better, then they do better,” says Dr. Ozlanski.
One suggestion Dr. Carter gave to better educate faculty on OER is for the university to host workshops or potentially invest in new advertising methods.
A barrier Dr. Lang has personally noticed is a lack of time to find useful OER. Since there are so many online learning materials, it is oftentimes hard for faculty to find free time to vet these sources.
“If we could find a way to give people more time to restructure their classes and to find the appropriate texts, I think they would do it,” says Dr. Lang.
Another issue Dr. Lang noted is that OER is not always respected. She reflected on a time when she published an article in an Open Access journal, and many people assumed her work was not peer-reviewed.
“Open Access means it’s openly available,” explains Dr. Lang. “It doesn’t mean that we let anyone put their stuff on here.”
This idea of information being openly available is what makes Dr. Lang so passionate about OER. She points out that so much of content produced by researchers is not available to the public, which causes a lack of knowledge regarding important subjects like health and science.
“When we are gatekeeping that way, we’re keeping information out of the hands of people who need it most,” says Dr. Lang.
Course Reserves
One way the Blough-Weis Library is trying to combat the issue of high textbook costs is through the Course Reserves system.
This service provides a cohesive list of all classes that have either physical or online textbooks available for check out at the library.
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