List of North American OER Policies & Projects

Canadian OER Policies & Projects

Alberta

• Modeling a successful program in British Columbia, Campus Alberta launched an OER Initiative to provide funding for the province’s institutions to support development, use and evaluation of OER.

British Columbia

• BC’s provicial government provided funding for the Open Textbook Project based at BCCampus to provide access to 40 open textbooks.
• A new grassroots association of librarians called BCOER is working to develop a set of resources to support librarians in their interactions with faculty related to OER. Their first event was a Hackfest in May 2014.

Saskatchewan

• The provinces of British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan signed a tri-province MOU outlining terms for collaboration on open textbooks.

United States OER Policies & Projects

Arizona

• Maricopa Community Colleges’ Maricopa Millions project seeks to save students $5 million over 5 years through OER.
• Arizona State University Libraries have developed a LibGuide for OER.
• The University of Arizona has a website dedicated to OER supported by the Libraries in collaboration with a broad group of entities on campus.

California

• State bills passed in 2012 SB1052 and SB1053 to create a library of 50 open textbooks.
• UCLA Libraries’ Affordable Course Materials Initiative provides support and awards to faculty to identify free and low-cost alternatives including OER.
• Cal State East Bay Libraries’ Textbook Alternatives program offers faculty stipends for affordable learning materials including OER.
• Cal State San Marcos’ Cougars Affordable Learning Materials initiative aims to replace costly textbooks with library materials and OER.
• San Jose State University’s library has developed an extensive collection of subject guides for OER.
• Cal Poly Pomona’s library created a set of faculty case studies who have implemented affordable alternatives for students including OER.
• Cal Poly San Louis Obispo’s library has hired a fellow to oversee the campus’s OER program.

Connecticut

• In 2015 the state legislature passed SHB 6117 to create a statewide open textbook pilot program.
• The University of Connecticut has an Open Initiative led by the Libraries in collaboration with others on campus.
• The Fairfield University Library hosted a day-long workshop on OER.

District of Columbia

• American University’s Open American initiative seeks to raise awareness and explore use of open textbooks and educational resources.

Florida

• Orange Grove Texts Plus program works with Florida Virtual Campus and the University Press of Florida to curate and publish open textbooks.
• Florida State University Libraries’ Alternative Textbook Grants program provides mini-grants to instructors to support the use of OER and other low-cost course materials.

Georgia

• The University System of Georgia’s Affordable Learning Solutions initiative prioritizes OER and is run by the state’s digital library.
• Emory University Libraries’ Open Education Initiative provides mini-grants to faculty to support the use of OER and other low cost resources.

Hawaii

• The University of Hawaii at Manoa has an OER Initiative with the library as a leading partner.

Illinois

• University of Illinois Open Source Textbook Initiative published an open textbook with support from a federal grant.

Iowa

• Kirkwood Community College offers an OER Faculty Adoption Program and maintains a blog about OER

Kansas

• Fort Hays State University’s Red Balloon OER Program focuses on reducing costs in general education courses
• Kansas State University Libraries’ Open/Alternative Textbook Initiative provides grants to faculty to create or curate free learning materials for their courses.

Maryland

• The University System of Maryland’s MOST (Maryland Open Source Textbook) Initiative is a student-driven pilot program to expand the use of open textbooks.

Massachusetts

• MIT’s OpenCourseWare project provides openly licensed course materials such as videos, textbooks and lecture notes for more than 2000 courses.
• UMass Amherst’s Open Education Initiative has saved students over $1 million by working with faculty to replace expensive textbooks with OER and free materials.
• Bristol Community College’s Open Education Initiative focuses on information literacy.
• The North Shore Community College Library included promoting OER as part of its 2014-2015 action plan.

Michigan

• University of Michigan’s Open.Michigan project enables the university’s faculty to share OER they create, with a particularly large collection of resources medicine.
• Washentaw Community College’s library has a detailed set of LibGuides with information about finding, assessing and adopting OER.

Minnesota

• University of Minnesota’s Open Textbook Library provides a searchable catalog of open textbooks with faculty reviews. This project has expanded into the Open Textbook Network, of which many campuses on this list are members.
• State bill passed in 2013 SF1236 including the expanded use of OER as as a performance goal for the MnSCU system.

New Hampshire

• University of New Hampshire library guide on OER.

New York

• Open SUNY Textbooks project to publish open textbooks.
• City University of New York guide on OER.

North Dakota

• State resolutions passed in 2013 HCR3009 and HCR3013 calling for the study and use of open textbooks in North Dakota’s higher education institutions.
• University of North Dakota OER Initiative.

Ohio

• University System of Ohio ran a multi-year pilot program using open textbooks.

Oklahoma

• University of Oklahoma Libraries’ Alternative Textbook Initiative offers funding and support to faculty, and has a full-time librarian dedicated to OER.

Oregon

• Open Oregon Educational Resources is a joint project of the state’s 17 community colleges.
• In 2015 the Oregon Legislature passed HB 2817, which establishes and OER grant program and funds a staff position to support outreach and implementation.
• Oregon State University Libraries, Press and Extended Campus partnered to launch an open textbook publishing initiative.
• Lane Community College has created an OER Faculty Fellowship program which provides professional development and incentives to support instructors who adopt OER. The program was a 2013 winner of the WCET Outstanding Work (WOW) award.
• Columbia Gorge Community College launched an OER Pilot Program and tracks the courses using OER, which amount to nearly $9,000 saved to date.

Pennsylvania

• Temple University Libraries’ Alternate Textbook Project provides support and funding to faculty to expand the use of OER and other low-cost resources.
• Carnegie Mellon University’s Open Learning Initiative offers free online courses in a variety of subjects that include adaptive technology.
• Penn State University’s College of Earth and Mineral Sciences’ OER initiative.

Rhode Island

• RI Office of Innovation, in partnership with Rhode Island College and all ten other higher education institutions in RI, launched a statewide Open Textbook Initiative to save students $5 million over five years.

Texas

• Rice University’s OpenStax College project publishes high quality, peer reviewed open textbooks.
• Houston Community College case study on the effectiveness of using open textbooks.
• Texas A&M University Libraries hosted a two-day workshop for the SEC institutions on OER and Open Access.
• University of Texas at Austin hosts the Center for Open Educational Resources & Language Learning (COERLL).

Utah

• State Office of Education program to develop and supports open textbooks for use in schools (also see study on savings and test scorces).

Vermont

• The Vermont State Colleges’ Hartness Library maintains an extensive guide to OER.

Virginia

• Virginia Community College System’s Technology Strategic Plan offers mini-grants to support adoption of OER (pg. 9).
• Tidewater Community College “Z-Degree” offers OER in every course for its entire business administration program.
• Northern Virginia Community College offered 12 mini grants to faculty to support OER adoption.
• Virginia State University’s School of Business revamped its core curriculum using open textbooks, producing improved student outcomes.
• Virginia Tech’s Library offer assistance to faculty to locate OER.
• The College of William and Mary library and student government have partnered on an OER initiative.

Washington

• State Board for Community and Technical Colleges Open Course Library initaitive to outfit the state’s highest enrollment community college courses with free and low cost materials. The system recently launched the Open Washington initiative, a network to support OER.
• State bill passed in 2012 HB2337 creating K-12 open textbook initiative.
• Tacoma Community College’s Liberate $250K Campaign works with faculty to replace expensive textbooks with OER and other free materials.
• Shoreline Community College’s library includes OER explicitly in its collection development policy.
• The University of Washington Libraries host an OER guide.
• Seattle Community Colleges libraries have developed a site about Open Access resources, including textbooks.

Wisconsin

• The University of Wisconsin Madison is crafting a strategy for OER as part of the Unizin initiative, and the Libraries have long published a Research Guide on OER.