A few years ago, Dr. Craig Blatz set out to make education more accessible for students in his psychology courses by introducing an open education resource (OER) textbook in his PSYC 212: Introduction to Research Methods course. Now, the associate professor uses OER, no-cost readings (journal articles that are open access or available through library subscriptions) or other low-cost alternatives in every single course he teaches.
"I try to cap textbook costs for my courses at $30," he says. "If a student took all five of the courses I regularly teach, they would pay about $50 total for textbooks and resources."
That savings can make a big difference, says Bachelor of Science student Alycia Stewart, who was among the first students to use an OER in Blatz's PSYC 212 course. While she says she had never even heard the term OER before, she had a good experience, thought the content supplemented her prof's notes and the course well, and definitely appreciated that the textbook was free.
