OER is one of the most visible areas being used by universities in their attempts to make education more affordable for students. This involves using open access materials for teaching, learning and research. These materials include textbooks, supplemental reading, videos, tests, images, etc. The materials may be in the public domain or may fall into the realm of open licensing.
Although the materials may be freely available to use and modify, there are costs involved for such things as hosting fees, production of new materials, and adapting or updating materials. Several institutions and organizations provide repositories or libraries of open education resources.
See the OhioLINK Open Course Content Library
to find up-to-date textbooks, class resources, and entire courses designed by faculty from universities across Ohio
Many individual institutions throughout the state, as well as the OhioLINK consortium, and the Ohio Open Ed Collaborative are working toward affordable learning in Ohio. OhioLINK hosts a web page where institutions can share their on-campus efforts to make learning affordable. The same site also hosts the completed projects of faculty from institutions across the state, working together to create complete OA courses in multiple disciplines. Funding for that project provided by a grant from the Ohio Department of Higher Education.