College textbooks and course materials costs have increased over 800% in the last 3 decades, far outpacing inflation, housing, and medical costs, to become the most inflated consumer product. High cost texts create significant barriers to learning and student success. Open Educational Resources (OER) are "teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others” (Hewlett Foundation). OER and related practices are an approach to overcoming cost and reuse barriers to the benefit of students and instructors. For more general information about OER, see The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Class Resource Affordability Initiative Grant (CRAIG)

The goal of the ESU CRAIG program is to support the adoption, adaption, compilation, and creation of affordable and accessible educational resources by ESU faculty for use in their classes, in order to reduce the cost of classes for ESU students. Grants can range from $1000 to $5000 depending on the type and intensity of the work needed to create the resource.

For more information on CRAIG grants, see the CRAIG information page and application.

Open Textbook Network

The Open Textbook Network is an alliance of higher education institutions committed to improving access, affordability, and academic success using open textbooks. The OTN manages the Open Textbook Library, a collection of over 600 open textbooks, many of which have been reviewed by disciplinary faculty at member institutions. As of 2019, the OTN remains a vital partner in expanding OER efforts at peer institutions.

OpenStax Institutional Partner Program

OpenStax is a nonprofit publisher and advocacy organization based at Rice University whose mission is to improve student access to education. The OpenStax Institutional Partner Program includes several peer institutions, including KU.