Affordable Learning / OER

The Oregon State Legislature has passed House Bill 2213 Links to an external site. and House Bill 2919 Links to an external site., which require each public institution to create a textbook affordability plan and to have course material information available when students register for courses. In fall term 2019, the provost convened the Affordable Learning Steering Committee (ALSC) with the charge to develop the processes for Oregon State University comply with the new state law, to help fulfill OSU’s access mission by improving the affordability of course materials, and to positively impact student success by making it more affordable for students to obtain course materials they need to study at the start of each term.

OSU's effort to support affordable learning resulted in the creation of the OER Unit to further our faculty's adoption, adapting, and authoring of open textbooks and other classroom materials. Open educational resources (OER) are digital materials that exist online in the public domain and are offered freely for students, teachers and researchers to share, use and reuse as a means of increasing the world’s access to knowledge. Examples of OER include textbooks, full courses, course modules, lectures, homework assignments, classroom activities, pedagogical materials and more – all located in digital media collections around the world.

Textbook Reporting

The process for reporting your textbook and course material requirements can seem tedious, but it is getting better. The Affordable Learning Initiative is pushing the bookstore to improve their processes and make timely reporting of course requirements easier. Here is an overview of the process for your reference.

For all course sections, fill out an OSU Beaver Store faculty order form Links to an external site.. Please submit this form if your course requires that students purchase a textbook even if there is no cost associated with the course textbook.

Under Adopt an item-Choose an option below

  1. For texts students must purchase (i.e., a required textbook) use the ISBN for your course textbook.
    1. If your textbook is also available as an ebook through the Valley Library, please note this in the comments field.
  2. If you are using Open Educational Resources for your text, under Adopt a special item, choose the Open Educational Resources radio button.
    1. An Open Educational Resource is course material which is free AND openly licensed (e.g., Creative Commons license or other open license.)
    2. Examples: Materials found on OpenStax, Open Textbook Library, or Directory of Open Access Books.
  3. If you are using other texts that are no cost to the students, under Adopt a special item, click the No-cost: See Instructor for any Course Materials radio button.
    1. Examples: An ebook from the library (please add Valley Library in note field) or required readings supplied by you via Canvas.

Use this reference for a Guide for placing your adoption order Links to an external site..

What else do student need to buy to be successful in your course?

If there are other course materials, like a calculator, a compass, art materials, etc. that are not part of the lab fee, please add these in the Beaver Store comment when submitting a requisition with an estimated cost. 

If you have any questions about filling out the OSU Beaver Store faculty order form please contact the Beaver Store.

Learn More

  • For more information on the OERU, visit their website.
  • Visit the OER Commons Links to an external site. to see currently available OER from OSU faculty.
  • For information about securing an OERU Grant go here or attend a workshop.
  • Join a workshop on the grant proposal process and related topics. This website is updated regularly and has recordings of past events.

Contact

The OERU (open education resource unit) at OSU exists to support faculty who want to adopt, adapt, or author OER materials. Learn more about the process and how the HB 2213 requirements are driving change in how course materials are made available throughout Oregon Universities at the OERU website. If you have questions about the Affordable Learning program at OSU contact John Morris, the COB Affordable Learning Liaison, or the program director for OERU, Stefanie Buck.