Background

We are approaching the 25th anniversary of UNESCO¹ coining the term Open Educational Resources (OER) to be inclusive of teaching materials in any format that resides in the public domain or are open-licensed in a way that allows the items to be retained, reused, revised, remixed, and redistributed. Yet, despite this important milestone, faculty awareness of OER has started to decline.² Textbook prices have increased exponentially, over 162% between 2000-2021, outpacing nearly every other industry and have become a more substantial barrier to higher education.³ Over 81% of medical doctors, 75% of health professions doctorates, 69% of graduate nurses, and 76% of undergraduate nurses are burdened with student loans, and the amount of those loans doubled between 2000-2016.^4-5 Although textbook and ancillary materials may only make up a small part of the cost of higher education, they are a key component of student success and there is a growing body of evidence demonstrating OER’s efficacy as an affordable and equitable alternative to traditional, high-cost textbooks.

OER initially gained popularity in general higher education courses with high enrollments to offset student costs, but as the result of research efforts investigating multifaceted variables related to OER, the concept is finally gaining traction in the health sciences. Although OER is an emerging topic in the medical education literature, Rutgers University Libraries has published about their Open & Affordable Textbook (OAT) Program that has saved students at the Biomedical and Health Sciences campus over $285,000.⁶ Their faculty and students have been utilizing OER in a psychiatric clerkship course, a multimedia anatomy manual, a radiology resource developed in collaboration with residents, and a physical therapy textbook based on research derived from library resources.⁷ A recently published case study identified themes among the barriers, successes, and future directions of three health sciences academic institutions, which further supports the library’s vital role in OER advocacy.⁸

Librarians are well positioned to act as agents of change (AOC) to lead campus OER adoption efforts with the necessary outreach skills to engage with key stakeholder groups and demonstrate OER’s potential as a catalyst for educational innovation. As highly trained experts that find and evaluate information sources, as well as facilitate the adoption and creation of OER, librarians have the necessary copyright knowledge to promote open licensing, and the ability to leverage metadata to enhance access to OER via institutional repositories.

OER as Innovation

Studies show how OER can alleviate student financial concerns, remove access barriers, and increase learner engagement while providing equal or better learning outcomes.⁹ The adaptability of OER provides an ideal teaching experience for faculty, to customize materials to align with specific course objectives and best meet the needs of today’s heterogeneous group of learners. OER provides a cost-effective option to share regularly updated information to lower costs of high-quality learning materials, reduce learning barriers, and facilitate student success.⁹ With a growing body of evidence on OER’s effectiveness, it is time for librarians to advance textbook affordability initiatives in the health sciences.

As a catalyst for innovation, OER have the potential to change how students and teachers interact with knowledge and with each other.¹⁰ One benefit to OER adoption in the health science disciplines is that it allows for new forms of learning to take place, redefining the pedagogical approach and enabling substantial learning experience redesign.¹⁰ For example, I am working with a pharmacy faculty member who is dissatisfied with the commercially available pharmaceutical calculations textbooks. As a result, they have set out to design their own resource, aligned with their teaching style, to best meet their course objectives and learner needs. In collaboration with a team of instructional designers and academic media experts, we are building the interactive course textbook using Articulate Rise to guide students through the content and practice exercises resulting in a new form of learning previously unavailable with existing resources.

Librarians as Agents of Change

Identifying key stakeholders to engage with OER will vary by institution, but librarians will generally target faculty, students, and administrators as AOC. Launching affordable learning initiatives will naturally require support from those three groups, but when aiming to revolutionize higher education on your campus I suggest starting with your fellow librarian colleagues. Join or form your own OER community of practice, to network with like-minded individuals learning from one another, accelerating the flow of knowledge to become more effective OER advocates.¹¹

Faculty

Faculty champions are the library’s key to success in every context and OER is no exception. Launching a library service to map course outcomes to existing library-licensed materials is a good way to get faculty on board and get librarians engaged in advocating for affordable learning initiatives. It is easier to expand a syllabi mapping service to include OER along with library-licensed materials once that mindset is in place. Textbook listening tours are strongly encouraged for all stakeholder groups.¹² Talk to the faculty to understand their pain points and work with them to identify opportunities for improvement. Financial incentives like mini-grants and stipends are always appreciated but not always possible, so do not underestimate the importance of recognition awards for honoring faculty that have adopted and/or created OER.

Students

Students are naturally their own strongest advocates when it comes to textbook affordability, but most are unaware that OER is an option in academia. Engaging students in the textbook listening tour process will help us better appreciate their experience.¹² For example, faculty may be unaware that students receiving financial aid are often not able to use those funds until after the semester start date, yet immediate access to the required course materials is paramount for student success and by being inadvertently delayed these learners begin the semester already at a disadvantage. Annual programming events like Open Education Week provide an easy way to raise awareness and engage students. Do not underestimate opportunities to connect with the Student Government Association, which can be a direct pipeline to advocating for OER at the student level.

Administrators

Connecting the concept of textbook affordability initiatives to institutional strategic goals is one evidence-based strategy to advocate for OER adoption at the administrative level.¹³ Being able to effectively communicate OER cost-saving metrics may help find organizational partners with an interest in student success like the Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Office of Enrollment Management. It may also be helpful to identify potential funding sources at the federal, state, local, and private sector that support OER initiatives to offset administrative costs.

Conclusion

Advocating for higher education evolution at your institution does not have to be intimidating. Start having casual conversations about OER with colleagues within the library and anyone else with a vested interest in student success at your institution. Find allies in faculty who are already using library-licensed materials as their required or recommended course resources and analyze the potential student cost savings. Culture change starts with small steps and if your institution is not ready for large-scale OER efforts, know that it only takes one faculty member interested in working with their librarian to express their academic freedom in choosing open and affordable educational materials for the word to spread.

References

1. Butcher, N. (2015). A basic guide to open educational resources (OER). Commonwealth of Learning, UNESCO. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000215804
2. Seaman, J., & Seaman, J. (2024, December 09). Approaching a new normal? Educational resources in U.S. Higher Education, 2024. Bay View Analytics. https://www.bayviewanalytics.com/reports/oer_2024_new_normal.html
3. Perry, M. (2021, July 13). Chart of the day. . . or century? American Enterprise Institute. https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/chart-of-the-day-or-century-6/
4. National Center for Education Statistics. (2018, May). Trends in student loan debt for graduate school completers. Institute of Education Sciences. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/tub/graduate-student-loan-debt
5. American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2017, October). Behind the degree: Financing graduate nursing education. https://www.aacnnursing.org/Portals/42/Policy/PDF/Debt_Report.pdf
6. Bridgerman, M. (2020). Open and affordable textbooks: Approaches to OER pedagogy. Library HiTech News, 7, 15-17. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-04-2020-0034
7. Bridgerman, M. (2021). The Rutgers University Libraries Open and Affordable Textbook (OAT) program. Medical Reference Services Quarterly, 40(3), 292-302. https://doi.org/10.1080/02763869.2021.1945864
8. Kirschner, J., Monnin, J., Andresen, C. (2023). Gaining ground: OER at 3 health sciences institutions. Hypothesis: Research Journal for Health Information Professionals, 35(2). https://doi.org/10.18060/27410
9. Hilton III, J. (2020). Open educational resources, student efficacy, and user perceptions: A synthesis of research published between 2015-2018. Educational Technology Research and Development, 68, 853-876. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-019-09700-4
10. Orr, D., Rimini, M., Van Damme, D. (2015). Open educational resources: A catalyst for innovation. OECD Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264247543-en
11. Smith, B., & Lee, L. (2017). Librarians and OER: Cultivating a community of practice to be more effective advocates. Journal of Library and Information Services in Distance Learning, 11(1-2), 106-122. https://doi.org/10.1080/1533290x.2016.1226592
12. Bell, S., & Johnson, A. (2019). We’re listening: Try a textbook listening tour to advance an OER initiative. College & Research Library News, 80(6), 317-320, 332. https://doi.org/10.5860/crln.80.6.317
13. SPARC. (2017). OER mythbusting. https://sparcopen.org/our-work/oer-mythbusting/

DCT Featured Article – January 14, 2025