Student initiated Partnership for OER adoption at Mines

On the Colorado School of Mines (Mines) campus, there is a profusion of various learning materials from departments all across campus that incorporate some forms of open educational resources. However, many students and faculty are not aware of the benefits these resources can bring to the learning environment, which has drastically stalled the adoption and creation of OERs in our community. A group of students, librarians, and faculty have started to identify and address the consequences of this issue. First, we implemented a survey to investigate undergraduate students’ opinion on textbook costs and the impact on their learning. The survey was delivered by the Mines Undergraduate Student Government (USG). Among the survey responders, roughly thirty-eight percent of students reported having experienced financial or personal strain as a result of high textbook prices. Many students questioned the necessity of purchasing an expensive textbook and the associated learning materials. Furthermore, many students directly expressed their desire for low-cost and customized learning materials for the Mines curriculum. To ease the cost burden for students and improve the quality of learning as well as the Mines reputation, we are now forming a partnership among USG, the Arthur Lakes Library, and the Trefny Learning Center to promote OERs to faculty, identify champions to adopt and create OERs, and develop toolkits to facilitate the adoption. In this presentation, we will overview our current effort, discuss the survey results, and highlight our interactions with several faculty members on converting their teaching materials into OERs