Explore OER created by our faculty

FLC students in a classroom

Open Educational Resources (OERs) ease the burden of textbook costs for students, incorporate a range of instructional technologies, foster a spirit of collaboration between educators, and so much more.

See what our faculty members have done to incorporate and create Open Educational Resources (OERs) for FLC courses.

Students: we're lowering textbook costs for you

Studies show that college textbook costs are rising faster than other costs of living. A recent survey of FLC students about textbook usage revealed that:

  • 65% of students reported that they had not bought some required textbooks due to the expense
  • 42% of students received a lower grade or failed a course because they could not afford to purchase the required textbooks
  • Over 20% of students based their course registration on the anticipated expense of textbooks

In alignment with Governor Polis’ Zero Textbook Cost Challenge, FLC is working to lower textbook costs for you. The Affordable Educational Resources initiative continues to decrease your textbook cost burden through the use of open educational resources (OER), online resources that fall under fair use consideration, and library resources.

Studies show that using these methods to lower textbook costs help students to get better grades and prevents withdrawing from school.

For faculty

Increase access

When you choose to use OER or library resources instead of textbooks, all of your students have free and timely access to materials, ensuring that everyone starts in the same place at the same time. Your students will no longer face falling behind as they wait until financial aid arrives to purchase a textbook. Not only does this initiative increase affordability, it increases access, making textbooks and other course materials available to all students by or before the first day of class.

Increase accessibility

OER also increases accessibility for your students who benefit from having digital versions of course texts. Digital materials allow for use of assistive technologies such as screen readers or color inversion, and can be compatible with other academic tools, such as annotation software.  Many students benefit from a variety of supplemental learning tools that can be more compatible with digital texts than printed texts.

Customize learning materials

College students are more diverse than ever. Off-the-shelf textbooks often contain examples students have trouble relating to or feel aren’t representative of them. With OER and library resources, you can create collections of readings, videos, and other materials customized to your course. This allows more flexibility to select materials that are relevant to FLC’s unique location and student population.

 

FLC's commitment

Professor in her classroom with students

AER Committee

Investigate methods of and make recommendations to the Provost for implementing a sustainable Educational Resources Affordability program at FLC. The committee focuses on building the campus infrastructure, resources, and culture needed to support textbook cost-lowering efforts.

Open Educational Resources Grant at FLC

FLC is a grant recipient of the Colorado Department of Higher Education’s OER Grant program, designed to expand the use of OER across public postsecondary institutions in the state. Between the two years, FLC has been awarded around $70,000 to fund faculty members for the adoption, adaption, and creation of OER. In just the first year of the OER Grant at FLC, the projected savings for students was nearly $140,000. We anticipate saving students another $110,000 in the second year.