U Georgia Nears $2 million Mark in OER Savings

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 11/20/15

The University of Georgia estimated that it has saved students $2 million through the adoption of open educational resources (OER) since 2013. According to Edward Watson, director of the university's Center for Teaching and Learning, "Our approach has been to pursue large enrollment courses using expensive textbooks. This has enabled us to maximize savings for students."

The institution has worked with Affordable Learning Georgia, a partnership the University System of Georgia has with California State University, which manages MERLOT, a venerable OER library of resources.

The Affordable Learning site provides a list of the most-enrolled system undergraduate courses, especially those that make up the core curriculum, which consists of courses required during the first two years of college for a given degree. The intent of the list is to help instructors replaced textbooks and other materials with "no-cost" alternatives. The offerings cull from MERLOT, as well as OpenStax College and eCore.

However, not all of the courses — "Abnormal Psychology," "Introduction to Film," "Medical Terminology" — have OER options. Eighteen groups of courses include a link to a "make a recommendation" form; another 21 suggest alternatives but also request additional recommendations.

U Georgia's OER Web site includes a current list of courses, along with the number of students who are taking it during a given school year and the cost savings they're enjoying by not having to buy commercial materials.

The site quoted one education student who earlier this year said, "The reading materials for this course were AMAZING. I'm not just saying that because I didn't have to pay for a textbook (although that was nice) but because I could be certain what I was reading was both relevant and the best source of information for the topic we were discussing. I was extremely grateful for this form of reading."

Another noted, "The instructor realizes that not everybody can afford a textbook, so she is giving everybody an equal opportunity to succeed."

In total over the last three years 21,536 students have not had to purchase a textbook for a savings of $1.97 million.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • person signing a bill at a desk with a faint glow around the document. A tablet and laptop are subtly visible in the background, with soft colors and minimal digital elements

    California Governor Signs AI Content Safeguards into Law

    California Governor Gavin Newsom has officially signed off on a series of landmark artificial intelligence bills, signaling the state’s latest efforts to regulate the burgeoning technology, particularly in response to the misuse of sexually explicit deepfakes. The legislation is aimed at mitigating the risks posed by AI-generated content, as concerns grow over the technology's potential to manipulate images, videos, and voices in ways that could cause significant harm.

  • close-up illustration of a hand signing a legislative document

    California Passes AI Safety Legislation, Awaits Governor's Signature

    California lawmakers have overwhelmingly approved a bill that would impose new restrictions on AI technologies, potentially setting a national precedent for regulating the rapidly evolving field. The legislation, known as S.B. 1047, now heads to Governor Gavin Newsom's desk. He has until the end of September to decide whether to sign it into law.

  • illustration of a VPN network with interconnected nodes and lines forming a minimalist network structure

    Report: Increasing Number of Vulnerabilities in OpenVPN

    OpenVPN, a popular open source virtual private network (VPN) system integrated into millions of routers, firmware, PCs, mobile devices and other smart devices, is leaving users open to a growing list of threats, according to a new report from Microsoft.

  • interconnected cubes and circles arranged in a grid-like structure

    Hugging Face Gradio 5 Offers AI-Powered App Creation and Enhanced Security

    Hugging Face has released version 5 of its Gradio open source platform for building machine learning (ML) applications. The update introduces a suite of features focused on expanding access to AI, including a novel AI-powered app creation tool, enhanced web development capabilities, and bolstered security measures.