Open & Affordable Educational Resources Guide

The high cost of course materials--textbooks, books, access codes, online quizzes / tests, etc.--are a financial barrier to education.

Textbook costs have risen four times faster than the rate of inflation over the past 10 years:

David Ernst's "Increase in Textbook Prices" slide is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Data source: Bureau of Labor Statistics.

• Union students will spend $2,000 on books and personal expenses during the 2021-2022 year (Union College Office of Financial Aid)

• 53-55% of Union students receive need-based financial aid (2020-21) (Union College Office of Financial Aid)

• 65% of college students skipped buying a textbook because of costs in 2020 (U.S. PIRG)

Course Material Affordability Realizes the Union College Strategic Plan

Course material affordability is an issue for diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging and achieves requirements of the 2020-25 Union College Strategic Plan, specifically Goal 1, Objective 4, Activity 3:

Making course materials affordable by all, not merely the privileged, would "[e]nsure that students of all economic backgrounds can access and take full advantage of the opportunities Union provides."

Faculty can ease the impact of course material costs on students in a number of ways, many of which are easy to implement:

• Replace commercial course materials with open educational resources
  • Did you know that there are OER for homework and test / quiz modules, etc.? Contact Kim Mitchell for help finding them. 
• Assign course materials / provide links to materials owned by Schaffer Library
• Place required materials on Reserve at Schaffer
• Check whether Schaffer owns / can purchase the course material(s)
• Keep required course material costs under $100
• Assign / use the entire textbook, not just part of it.
  • Having to purchase an entire textbook when only part is assigned is particularly upsetting to students.
• Assign older editions of the course material(s)
• Allow the use of older editions
• Allow the use of editions from different publishers
• Place course material orders by the start of the class registration period
• Allow the use of laptops + tablets in class; don't require physical copies of the course materials to be brought to class
• Upload required content to Nexus