By now you’ve heard about open access and open and affordable education resources. We also hope you’ve heard how important, transformative, and helpful they can be for students and the community. Open Access Week this year asks us to consider community over-commercialization and at the library, we always have the community in mind. A community with access to information makes more informed choices, is not punished for lacking resources to move beyond paywalls, and has the power to create a more just society. When education is thought of as something for only the privileged few and not a right for all, misinformation is born at rapid rates as we take any information found with easy access as truth, without knowing the entire story. Open-access resources have the potential to remedy the pitfalls of paying for valuable information while establishing a more equitable research field for the community at large.
This is why the University of Scranton’s Weinberg Memorial Library supports the adoption of open and affordable education resources in our classrooms and across our campus. According to the College Board’s Annual Survey of Colleges, undergraduates at private 4-year nonprofit universities spend an average of $1,240 per year on textbooks. Numerous studies suggest that the high cost of textbooks leads many students to forgo purchasing course texts, which can affect students’ participation and success within the course.
One of the ways we at the library are supporting affordable and open learning is through our Affordable Learning Implementation Grants, open to all members of campus who teach a course to consider implementing OER in their classroom. The deadline for submission is December 1st, 2023. Additionally, check out our OER LibGuide for a wealth of resources to see just how easy it can be to utilize open and affordable learning tools in your courses. More information can be found at the following links:
https://guides.library.scranton.edu/OER
https://www.scranton.edu/academics/wml/infolit/oer-grants.shtml