There must be transparency about the total cost of education in order to give students an opportunity to make informed decisions about which courses and programs fit not only their career goals but also their budgets--and that includes the price of course materials. In fact, the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) of 2008 requires it. This law, enacted in 2010, requires institutions to display the "retail price information of required and recommended college textbooks and supplemental materials for each course," including "alternate content delivery programs" and "cost-saving strategies." OER (Open Educational Resources) would clearly land within the "cost-savings strategies" of HEOA, but institutions don't always have an easy way to disclose to their students which courses are utilizing OER. Institutions, systems and states seeking to increase transparency and the visibility of low-cost course options have adopted "course designators," within the course schedule to signal which courses use OER or low-cost course materials.