OER Design: Support for UTSA Faculty

REDESIGNING YOUR COURSES?
HELP YOUR STUDENTS SUCCEED WITH NO-COST AND LOW COST COURSE MATERIALS! 

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted higher education’s instructional models. This summer, many UT System faculty are redesigning their courses to fit new online or hybrid modalities.

This disruption is the perfect time to consider using no-cost and low-cost course materials. Why? 

• The pandemic has caused financial suffering to students and their families, especially among our most financially vulnerable students. The pandemic has created greater urgency for UT institutions to keep student financial well-being and affordability at the center of future planning and decision-making.
• Many of these no-cost and low-cost course materials are digital and can be easily integrated into online or hybrid teaching modalities.
• Students are highly satisfied with courses that implement no-cost and low-cost course materials.

No-Cost Course Resources: Open Educational Resources

• Open Educational Resources, or OERs, are digital, free, openly licensed and customizable by faculty.   
• OERs remove financial barriers to student success.
• OER empower faculty to customize them so they can easily adopt and adapt them to their pedagogical and course needs. See OER’s 5Rs.
• OERs can be fully self-contained textbooks, videos, quizzes, learning modules, courseware, and more.
• OER provide immediate, equitable, and perpetual access to course resources.

Low-Cost Resources

• UT System Libraries subscribe to thousands of resources (e-books, e-journals, streaming media) that can be used as course materials. Talk to your library about how you can integrate them into your courses.
• Consider lower cost proprietary textbooks

If there was ever a time for a commitment to, greater engagement with, and strategic investment in affordable learning materials, it is now.

Please contact DeeAnn Ivie for details on getting started.

About the UT System Affordable Learning Accelerator Task Force
The Affordable Learning Accelerator Task Force includes faculty, academic leaders, and library directors from the universities, as well as representation from the Faculty Advisory Council (FAC) and the Student Advisory Council (SAC). The task force recognizes the authority faculty have over the curriculum, including decisions regarding what textbooks and other learning resources to use in their courses.