Lowering Textbook Costs

Textbook costs negatively impact student access, success, and course completion. According to Florida Virtual Campus’ Student Textbook and Course Materials Survey and Information, 64.2% of students didn’t buy a required textbook, and 22.9% dropped a course because of textbook costs.

Lowering textbook costs can lead to greater student retention and more active participation in course content.

Open & Affordable Options

Hazy Library supports textbook affordability by assisting faculty in finding open and affordable textbook options. Keep in mind that the best alternative options are often a combination of alternative materials, rather than a one-to-one replacement of a traditional textbook.

We can help you:

  • Find an open textbook to replace a current textbook
  • Find open materials and/or library materials to replace a current textbook
  • Explore the best textbook alternative for your course. This may include:
    • An open textbook or other OER
    • Library resources, such as ebooks or scholarly articles
    • Traditional textbooks put on Course Reserve at the library  
  • Explore options for authoring an open textbook
  • Host open resources in Scholarly Commons
  • Answer questions about OER and open licensing

Are you already using an open textbook or textbook alternative? Let us know by filling out this short Open & Affordable Textbook Reporting Form.

How do I find OER?

Finding the best-suited OER for your course can be difficult. Our Open Educational Resources guide can help you get started with the best places to begin your search. Eleni Rammos (Eleni.Rammos@erau.edu) can also assist you over email or in a one-on-one consultation to discuss finding OER for your course.

Creating OER

Creating Open Educational Resources for others to reuse can increase your global impact and visibility as an instructor. Hazy Library can host your OER in Scholarly Commons, our institutional repository. We also have limited institutional seats available to create OER through the open textbooks platform, PressbooksEDU. Hazy Library can answer any questions about creating, licensing, or hosting OER.

Copyright & Creative Commons

Generally, open resources are available for free and can be adapted or reused. Faculty can add new material, rearrange material, or combine multiple OER together, making OER a powerful and flexible tool.

Most OER are released under a Creative Commons (CC) license. Each CC license stipulates how the work can be used. Our Creative Commons and Copyright guides provide more detail about navigating open licenses. Hazy Library can answer any further questions.