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UNI Rod Library

Open Educational Resources (OER) & Textbook Equity

What is Textbook Equity?

Textbook Equity is a campuswide initiative aspiring that all UNI students have access to high-quality course materials that are: affordable, accessible, and inclusive.

Initiative Accomplishments To Date--With no annual budget, we have collectively:

  • Saved UNI students more than $2.9 million since tracking began in 2016.
  • Recognized more than 100 Textbook Equity Champions, UNI faculty who have demonstrated commitment to course materials access by transitioning courses to Open Educational Resources (OER) or other free materials, saving UNI students nearly $900,000 in 2024, a new record!
    • Cost savings increased by 84% from 2023.
    • Instructors: 102, increase of 28% from 2023.
    • Sections: 277, an increase of 98%. 85% of these sections met in-person; 15% met online/other.
    • Courses: 90 courses used free materials, an increase of 58%
    • Students benefitting: 7,465, an increase of 83%.
  • UNIFI (general education) courses had a significant impact:
    • 51% of the UNI cost savings comes from UNIFI courses. 
    • The number of course sections in UNIFI using free texts, 140, more than doubled in 1 year!
  • OER is the most popular money-saver; OER accounted for 74% of the cost savings, with the remainder including unlimited library-licensed content, Open Access books, and other materials that are at no additional cost to students.
  • Created 2 one-time programs to publish UNI-authored free textbooks. From 2022 through 2024, Rod Library published 12+ free, openly-licensed textbooks, saving UNI students about $410,000 per year.
  • UNI-authored OER saved students at other institutions more than $64,000!
  • Continued UNI Textbook Equity Student Advisory Board and partnered with Northern Iowa Student Government to engage students in textbook equity advocacy.
  • Partnered with UNI Registrar's Office and UNI Bookstore to increase transparency and data collection about versions of course materials that are free to students.
  • Continued Course Materials Affordability Review service, an opt-in program for faculty to receive a customized list of free/affordable materials matching a course. More than 70 reviews have been completed for instructors in more than 25 academic departments/programs!
  • Participated in 2021-22 AAC&U Institute on OER to create a campus Action Plan for textbook equity.
  • Provide statewide and national leadership through participation on Iowa OER Action Team and the Open Education Network Steering Committee.

Why is Textbook Equity important at the UNI?

In the Fall 2023 Cost of Attendance survey (n = 1792), UNI students reported they:

  • share books (39%).
  • avoid purchase/rental of required texts (27%).
  • change sections or avoid registering for a specific course/section due to textbook costs (23%).
  • work extra hours to pay for textbooks (22%).
  • have earned a poor or failing grade due to textbook costs (17%).
  • have dropped a course or taken fewer courses due to textbook costs (16%).

    Data broken out by students' primary major is available upon request; contact Anne Marie Gruber.

 

Why does textbook equity matter?

Why OER?

Research has shown that using OER can lead to various benefits for students and instructors alike:

  • Students in courses using OER have similar learning outcomes, with pronounced benefits for Pell-eligible, non-white, first-generation, and non-domestic college students (Colvard et al., 2018; Clinton et al., 2019; Delgado et al., 2019; Marsh et al., 2022).
  • Students assigned open textbooks are more likely to report using their textbooks, using them more frequently and more often when compared with commercial textbooks (Cuttler, 2018)
  • Students are more likely to stay in courses: courses with free materials have an average 29% lower withdrawal rate than those with commercial texts (Clinton & Khan, 2019; n=78,000).
  • Students in courses with no-cost/low-cost materials have increased likelihood of graduation and lower time to graduation (Diaz Solodukhin et al., 2025).
  • Students who enroll in multiple OER courses take more credits and have higher course completion rates (Griffiths et al, 2020; Ross et al, 2018).
  • Courses implementing open pedagogy can drive student engagement, contribute to media literacy, and build students’ workforce readiness (Baran & AlZoubi, 2019; Sánchez Vera et al., 2021).
  • Instructors can innovate while improving their students’ learning experiences by implementing OER in their courses (Kimmel et al., 2022).
  • Students may feel an increased sense of belonging, both because they can access materials and if they can see themselves reflected in those materials (Nusbaum, 2020).
  • Students may feel an improved sense of mental wellbeing because stress caused by textbook costs is eliminated (Jenkins et al., 2020).

Textbook Equity at the National Level 

There are a number of ways to address textbook equity, as shown below. This guide primarily focuses on Open Educational Resources (OER).

Affordable course materials Venn diagram

Image courtesy: Abbey Elder (public domain)

Why Open Textbooks? 

Impact by College (2024)