Student Benefits

How does OER benefit me as a student?

According to the UC Equity, Diversity and Inclusion website, "As a UC student, you have the right to express yourself, to engage in dialogue and to participate in the free exchange of ideas that fuels discovery and academic excellence." We encourage students to engage with their instructors on access and selection of course materials. The California Community Colleges and the California State University systems have made considerable efforts to strategically move toward affordable course material through systematic changes, creating Zero Textbook Cost pathways, and more.

The UC system has not provided a structured approach, instead librarians and faculty advocates are collaborating on grassroot efforts to bring the issues of automatic billing (equitable or inclusive access programs) to the forefront, while offering benefits of various open education initiatives.

Cost savings

As a student, you are probably familiar with the high cost of textbooks and how purchasing multiple textbooks each quarter impacts your budget. According to the Education Data Initiative (2023), the average undergraduate student pays $339-$600 on books/supplies each academic year, and 25% of students reported working extra hours to afford books and materials.

Open educational resources (OER) ease this financial burden: with OER, your learning materials are free, meaning that you can use the money you've saved on important expenses such as rent, groceries, or transportation.

Student Advocacy

Student groups have been advocating for open and affordable textbooks in California and nationwide. In 2021, University of California students passed a resolution encouraging UC to invest in openly accessible course materials.

Nationally, the Make Textbooks Affordable campaign, led by Student PIRGs (Public Interest Research Group), advocates for free or low-cost college textbooks. Make Textbooks Affordable has released research on textbook affordability and provides resources and action items for student advocates.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility

By making educational materials free and openly accessible, OER advance diversity and equity. Free educational resources lower financial barriers to education and foster inclusion of students who belong to groups historically underrepresented in higher education.

Additionally, instructors can incorporate diversity, inclusion, and accessibility in their use of OER. Many OER include content that is inclusive of people with diverse backgrounds and is responsive to cultural differences. Online OER often follow universal design for learning principles and have accessibility features that enable students with diverse learning styles and/or disabilities to engage in course content.

Examples of OER that prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion:

• Introduction to LGBTQ+ Studies: A Cross-Disciplinary Approach. By Deborah P. Amory, et al.
• Critical Race Theory in Education: Reader of Open Access Scholarship. By Oscar E. Patrón, et al.

OER and Data Privacy

You may be accustomed to renting digital textbooks or purchasing access codes from textbook publishers. What you may not know is that they collect data from their student users through unclear terms-of-use agreements, and what's more, they may sell this data to others (Meinke, 2018; Swaak, 2023). This may seem like a typical consequence of Internet use, but it's important to be aware of these kinds of practices as a form of "surveillance capitalism"—which refers to technology corporations profiting from tracking users' data—you are now the product, not the consumer. OER do not harvest data in this way: when you use OER, you are free from tracking and personal data piracy.