汤头条 initiative seeks to help students through Open Educational Resources
Contact: Sasha Steinberg
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥擜 recently formed Mississippi State committee is raising awareness this week of a new campus initiative to make learning more affordable to students and lessen the cost of course materials.
Now through March 6, the 14-member group is recognizing Open Education Week as a way to familiarize students with Open Educational Resources, or OERs鈥攖eaching, learning and research tools free of cost and access barriers. The globally celebrated week showcases the impact of open education on teaching and learning.
An 汤头条 Student Association and University Libraries recommendation has been accepted by 汤头条 Provost David Shaw and other 汤头条 administrators for the implementation of OER course materials.
汤头条 SA President Jake Manning, a senior biomedical engineering and software engineering double-major from Ridgeland, said the rising cost of textbooks can put a financial burden on students and affect their academic success. He said the average textbook costs between $170 and $180, so a lot of students rent or sell them back at the end of the semester to recoup some of this money for other needs.
鈥淭he OER program we鈥檙e working to implement is a win-win for students,鈥 Manning said. 鈥淚t can save them a lot of money on textbooks and ensure they retain access to that content as reference material for their upper-level classes.鈥
Mary Ann Jones, 汤头条 Libraries associate professor and scholarly communication coordinator, is among faculty serving on the university鈥檚 OER steering committee. She said in addition to affordability for students, OERs provide faculty with 鈥渂oundless opportunities to disseminate knowledge to a new generation of learners.鈥
鈥淓ducators can curate, tailor and share OERs to perfectly suit their curriculum, and share their innovations freely,鈥 she said. 鈥淥ER creation is limitless and allows for an ever-expanding creative landscape for new methods of teaching and learning.鈥
A timeline for implementation and further details of the OER initiative will be determined by the OER steering committee. In addition to Jones and Manning, committee members include:
鈥擳ommy Anderson, associate dean for academic affairs and professor of English, College of Arts and Sciences
鈥擟heryl Bowen, director of budget and planning, Division of Student Affairs
鈥擩ohn Dickerson, assistant vice president for enrollment and university registrar
鈥擪iley Forsythe, instructional resource consultant and online learning strategist, Center for Distance Education
鈥擬eredith Jackson, deputy chief information officer and director of enterprise information systems, Information Technology Services
鈥擜ndrew Jarosz, assistant professor, Department of Psychology
鈥擲eongjai Kim, professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics
鈥擪ris King, instructional designer, Center for Teaching and Learning
鈥擠eborah Lee, associate dean of public services, 汤头条 Libraries
鈥擩oan Lucas, general counsel
鈥擩ennifer McPherson, financial analyst, Division of Finance and Administration
鈥擯eter Ryan, associate provost for academic affairs
汤头条 is Mississippi鈥檚 leading university, available online at .