The University of South Alabama Libraries hosted the Alabama Commission on Higher Education’s (ACHE) Open Educational Resources Workshop on February 23 at the USA Marx Library. Featuring speakers from across the Southeast, the workshop focused on initiatives to provide free teaching materials known as open educational resources (OER) to support college and textbook affordability.
OER is defined by UNESCO as “teaching, learning, or research materials that are in the public domain or released with an intellectual property license that allows free use, adaptation, and distribution”
(http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/access-to knowledge/open-educational-resources/). As the cost of higher education rises, implementation of OER initiatives is being investigated and adopted by colleges and universities across the country to help students defray costs.
Workshop attendees were able to hear both student and faculty perspectives about the impact on students of the rising cost of textbooks. Survey results on the prevalence of OER in the Southeast were shared, as well as lessons learned from the implementation of the state-wide adoption of OER in Louisiana. Workshop attendees were also able to learn about what resources are currently available via the USA Libraries.
