Why OER?

The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) summarizes the why behind using OER with these four points:

• Textbook costs should not be a barrier to education

• Students learn more when they have access to quality materials

• Technology holds boundless potential to improve teaching and learning

• Better education means a better future

OER supports a future where:

• Students and instructors have free access to a wide variety of high-quality educational resources that have been collaboratively developed, reviewed, revised, and shared across institutions

• Educational resources can be easily adapted to fit within the context of specific courses, and to meet the needs of specific students 

• The cost of creation, use, and maintenance of curricular materials is much lower than the current costs of traditional textbooks and other classroom resources