OER ties directly into the institutional values reflected in the Gonzaga University Mission Statement, especially in these areas: Solidarity with the Poor and Vulnerable, Social Justice, Care for the Planet, Academic Excellence, Diversity and Intercultural Competence, and Global Engagement.
| Solidarity with the Poor and Vulnerable | Though there may be some students who can fully afford Gonzaga, there are many that depend on financial aid to cover expenses. According to US News and World Report, over half of first-year students at Gonzaga received need-based financial aid in 2020-21. The estimated cost of books and supplies per semester is $1212. According to a 2019 national survey conducted by U.S. PIRG Education Fund, the high textbook costs can cause students to skip buying or renting a textbook, skip meals, choose their courses based on textbook cost, and/or have to work extra hours to pay for textbooks. |
| Social Justice | OER use in the classroom has other benefits besides cost. Studies have shown that OER use improves performance in the classroom for all students, but has a significant impact on performance in the classroom for low-income and underrepresented students (Colvard, Watson, & Park, 2018). |
| Care for the Planet | Since OERs are primarily digital, they don't create waste through the process of printing, binding, and shipping a physical textbook; yet, on-demand, low-cost printing remains an option for students who want it. |
| Academic Excellence |
With OER, students can have access to materials well before and long after the course, which enhances learning opportunities for both prospective and past students. Having access to course materials in advance helps students better select and prepare for their courses. Having access to course materials after the course helps students who need to brush up on certain topics and reinforces what they previously learned. Studies have also shown that students engage more frequently with assigned course materials when they use OER rather than commercial textbooks (Cutler, 2018), and that there are no differences in learning efficacy between open and commercial textbooks (Clinton & Khan, 2019). |
| Diversity and Intercultural Competence |
Students can be more than just consumers of OER--they can also be contributors and creators. This is known as open pedagogy or OER-enabled pedagogy. Engaging students in the creation of OER offers an opportunity to infuse underrepresented perspectives and experiences into teaching and learning materials, which in turn, increases students' sense of belonging and connection to the material (SRI Education, 2022). Similarly, adopting OER in your classroom that has been developed by a wide and diverse set of contributors exposes students to new viewpoints and ways of thinking, which also increases students sense of belonging in the classroom/on campus (Nusbaum, 2020). |
| Global Engagement | When you publish OER, you are showcasing learning materials you've created to a global audience. Anyone from around the world can then adopt and further build upon what you've created. Additionally, students from around the world, including those in low-resource environments, can use and engage with the materials. |
The following video was created for Open Education Week 2020. Students were asked to share how much they spent on textbooks during the Spring 2020 semester.