2.1 At-Home

While the OER movement has been around for well over ten years, awareness of it at UH was limited until recently. In 2015, the creation of a UH OER Committee with representatives from each campus led to increased interest by faculty in using OER in the classroom. The committee's advocacy, along with ongoing concerns about high textbook costs and a desire for more flexible and innovative teaching resources, is prompting more faculty to seek alternatives to traditional commercial textbooks.

"Since 2006, the cost of textbooks has increased four times the rate of inflation. The textbook market does not function like others, where companies compete for their share of the marketplace and the laws of supply and demand affect the price of the product. In contrast, students must purchase the materials assigned by a professor, who may or may not be considering price among other factors when assigning materials. While students can save money with some types off [sic] digital materials and through the used books market, publishers have found ways to keep prices high and diminish the cost saving impact of these alternatives. Many professors who adopt publisher materials for their courses now require students to purchase more restrictive and costly products such as access codes, which hide homework and quizzes behind an online paywall. These products are costly because they are typically bundled with print or digital textbooks, and students usually cannot find the bundle for sale anywhere but at the campus bookstore, which locks them into paying full price. Worse, at the end of the term, the student's access to the online material expires, and this expiration also renders the other material in the bundle valueless in the market for used materials. Existing federal statue [sic] regulates the practice of bundling, but includes sizeable loopholes that allow it to continue. (Student PIRGs, 2018, p. 3)"

Continue reading the Introduction and Analysis (pages 5 - 8), scan Course Material Comparison (pages 9 - 19) and finish reading the Recommendations (pages 20 - 21) in Open 101: An Action Plan for Affordable Textbooks.