The results of the first cross-campus survey of student opinions on Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) courses are in: City University of New York (CUNY) students like their ZTC courses, primarily for the cost savings and ease of access. The survey results yield rich data about how positively students feel about their Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) courses as…

This paper examines the role of proprietary software in the production of open educational resources (OER). Using a single case study, the paper explores the implications of removing proprietary software from an OER project, with the aim of examining how complicated such a process is and whether removing such software meaningfully advances a…

Open Education gained more visibility as a result of the emergence of Open Educational Resources (OER) and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). This article discusses whether MOOCs should be considered as OER. Open Education and OER can be treated as two strands with different historical roots even though, in theory, OER are an aspect of Open…

Across the Midwest, colleges and universities are saving students millions of dollars through textbook affordability initiatives, primarily through OER creation and adoption programs and Inclusive Access bulk-purchase discount programs. Notable examples of textbook affordability initiatives include Indiana University's eTexts Initiative and Ohio's…

Educational leadership, whether in PK-12 or higher education, often examine the planning of curricula and materials for equity. Due to the global pandemic that began in early 2020, the planning of instructional materials had to be reexamined due to the travel and interaction restrictions that closed most brick-and-mortar schools, colleges, and…

Declining levels of state provision of free legal advice and representation have led to increased demand for support from legal charities. This study evaluates a co-designed Open Educational Resource providing education and training for support workers volunteering for the UK legal charity Support Through Court. Addressing issues of domestic abuse…

One of the core tensions in open educational practice in current mathematics and physical science coursework is the use of online homework systems. Many such tools are from commercial providers and have profit to that provider as a motive. Open resources are pursued by those who, for reasons of cost or of pedagogy, seek to resist the tools of…

In the previous era of open educational practices (OEP) based around distance teaching, its actors and their target group were clear to define: open universities and disadvantaged learners. In this new era of OEP linked to digitalized open educational resources, there are multiple actors and beneficiaries of OEP. This critical literature review…

The concepts Open Distance (ODL) and the Open Educational Resources (OER) are central to Higher Education around the globe. Although the OER are understood to be freely available online material that anyone can use for teaching and learning purposes, there is some evidence to suggest that majority of students in the African continent do not use…

Libraries continue to spearhead initiatives to incentivize instructors to adopt, adapt, and create open educational resources (OER). However, these programs often do not explicitly require educators to preserve the OER they create. Drawing on an analysis of semi-structured interviews with six experts, this article presents considerations for…

Online teacherpreneurs are teachers who use social media platforms to create, sell, and distribute educational resources to others. For many teachers, they have become the new curriculum developers in our virtually intensive world. Curriculum development in mathematics education has a large impact on how students understand concepts, but little is…

Unlike students in traditional Chinese universities using textbooks published in China, students in transnational universities face unresolved issues in the acquisition and distribution of imported English language textbooks. The challenges, which have persisted for over a decade, include delays in delivery caused by international shipment,…

Aim: Open Access fosters the exchange of academic research information by making publications free of charge and, wherever possible, available through open licenses and without any technical barriers. Although the Open Access publication model is already well established in the natural sciences, there seems to be more resistance towards Open…

Purpose: Open Educational Resources (OER) are learning materials openly licensed so that others may retain, reuse, revise, remix or redistribute (the 5Rs) these materials. This paper aims to raise awareness of OER by providing a rationale for using these learning materials and a strategy for educators to get started with OER during the collective…

As distance learning becomes increasingly important and artificial intelligence tools continue to advance, automated systems for individual learning have attracted significant attention. However, the scarcity of open-source online tools that are capable of providing personalized feedback has restricted the widespread implementation of…