Faculty: Find Out How Your Peers Are Using Affordable & Open Course Materials
Posted February 22, 2022 in JMU Libraries News, Open Education News
On March 9, 10am-12:30pm, take a virtual tour of four courses that use open educational resources (OER) or open pedagogy.
The cost of textbooks is a serious problem for some students. JMU recommends that students budget $1,098 per year for textbooks! “Many textbooks not only cost a lot, they are also copyrighted to prevent sharing, and are not able to be modified by the instructor,” according to Liz Thompson, our Open Education Librarian.
You can’t customize traditional textbooks. Open educational resources (OER), by contrast, allow you to customize materials to support your course goals, use more diverse and inclusive language, examples, and case studies, and lower the cost of course materials for your students.
Learn how OER are actually used by your colleagues across Virginia! Sign up to join a virtual tour of four courses by colleagues at Virginia institutions who are using open pedagogy or OER in their courses, including:
- World Geography: Dr. Caitie Finlayson, University of Mary Washington
- Pre-Clinical Medicine: Dr. Renée LeClair & Dr. Andrew Binks, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine
- Communicating Across Cultures: Dr. Robert Godwin-Jones, Virginia Commonwealth University
- Principles of Public Speaking: Dr. Danielle Leek, Reynolds Community College
Want to learn more? Read our Q&A with Dr. Jim Bywater to learn how a JMU faculty member in the College of Education uses open content in his courses. You can also set up a time to chat with Liz Thompson, our Open Education Librarian or contact your liaison librarian for help finding open educational resources for your course.