The high cost of educational resources and textbooks create a serious obstacle to the accessibility and affordability of a post-secondary education. Traditional educational resources also present barriers to innovation in pedagogy and curriculum design. Fortunately, open educational resources (OER) are a viable solution to both these problems, since they can be accessed for free online or printed at a fraction of the cost of a traditional textbook. They can also be edited to better fit the curricular or pedagogical goals of an instructor.
In British Columbia, OER have been funded by the provincial government, a number of universities and colleges, and the Hewlett Foundation.
Student support and advocacy for OER is important to:
- ensure that OER gain or continue to build momentum on campuses,
- bring together community members, and
- push for the adoption and creation of resources.
Greater OER adoption results in:
- an increase in the amount of student dollars saved,
- pedagogical benefits in the classroom, and
- benefits to society more broadly.
Open Textbook Campaigns
In B.C., see the Open Textbooks Now! campaign by the British Columbia Federation of Students (BCFS).
Are you interested in starting an open education or TextbookBroke campaign at your institution and need materials? See the BCFS OER Campaign Guide.
For more information from British Columbia, see the BCcampus OER Student Toolkit and find out more about how you can advocate for open education at your institution.
Other resources include:
- OER Student Advocate Toolkit (California)
- Textbook Affordability Student Toolkit (Open Oregon)
- Student Government Toolkit (Open Textbook Alliance)
- Connect OER (SPARC)
- A Graduate Student’s Guide to Open Education and Scholarship