Innovative faculty members at Utah Tech are redesigning their courses to include Open Educational Resources (OER). These resources are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing. All learning materials in these OER courses are free, saving UT students $600,000 per year. Students report that they appreciate customized material, and they appreciate the cost savings.
The mission of OER within Utah Tech University is to increase student academic success by removing barriers that impede access to course materials. The OER program aids and supports faculty and departments in implementing this content in their courses.
In 2023, the U.S. Department of Education awarded Utah Tech University a U.S. Department of Education Title III, Part A, Strengthening Institutions Program grant to expand our capacity to serve thousands of students by providing funds to improve and strengthen the academic quality of our institution. The grant will support the OER program at Utah Tech for five-years. For more information visit the Title III grant awarded to Utah Tech here.
As of 2024, we are marking OER courses in the course catalog as “No Textbook Cost,” making these courses easy for students to find and register for. The objective, by September 30, 2028, under the Title III grant is to increase yearly student cost savings of textbook purchases.
The current focus of the OER program is to target high enrollment General Education courses on campus with the aim to create an affordable and accessible pathway to an associate’s degree. However, any faculty member on campus can utilize the assistance of the OER librarian, even if their project does not fall under the Title III grant.
With ongoing university support and grant funding, the future of OER at Utah Tech will likely include incentives for faculty to find, create, and utilize quality open source learning materials for both General Education and Upper Division courses.
Contact
Emma Lanners
Assistant Librarian - Open Educational Resources and Graduate Support
Email: Emma.Lanners@utahtech.edu
Phone: 435-652-7719
Office: HCCLIB 354
Elizabeth Matheson
Library Paraprofessional - Open Educational Resources
Email: Elizabeth.Matheson@utahtech.edu
Phone: 435-652-7993
Office: HCCLIB 353