Open Access and Affordability

Written by David Wuolu, Assistant Director for Collections

I am constantly reminded that college is expensive.  Your library staff, along with the faculty, can reduce this overall cost through a deep scrutiny of course materials.  In doing this we’re trying to make college more affordable, and that’s something that students tell us is very important to them.

In a recent survey by MISO, students and faculty were asked about their satisfaction with access to free or low-cost textbooks and other course materials. 98% of faculty report being satisfied or somewhat satisfied with access while 75% of students report the same.  Likewise, only 2% of faculty report dissatisfaction or some dissatisfaction while 25% of students report the same. Our analysis of this survey concludes that while faculty are largely satisfied with access to free or low-cost course materials, students express significantly lower satisfaction—likely reflecting their direct financial burden. This is clearly an area with room for improvement to better support student needs.[1]

There are a couple of major tools in our arsenal for reducing the cost of course materials. The first is called Open Educational Resources (OER) which are “teaching, learning and research materials that make use of appropriate tools, such as open licensing, to permit their free reuse, continuous improvement and repurposing by others for educational purposes.”[2] What are called the five freedoms of OER are the ability to retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute.[3]  The interest in OER is global, and highly motivated by issues around economic justice and sustainability. In fact, this week is Open Access Week! Stop by either library or visit guides.csbsju.edu/openaccess to learn more.

The second major tool is library-licensed content.  We partner with faculty to find multi-user ebooks that can be used in courses. We’ve even given out an award, starting in the Spring Semester 2025, called the Innovation in Course Material Affordability Award.  The first year the award went to theology professor Benjamin Durheim for his effort to significantly reduce the cost of course materials for students through OER, open pedagogy, or library-licensed content. 

This semester, the collective cost to students for course materials that are available free to them as eBooks would be $88,410.00, which represents the ceiling of savings for the students for just one semester, while it costs the library just a small fraction of that to provide these eBooks—$14,624—and a good chunk of this was purchased in previous years. These are mostly books for which we have purchased a perpetual license, however some of them are available in rental packages.  We hope to combine this strategy of using library-licensed content with increasing use of OER materials, and even in-house development of OER. The libraries are currently funding the adoption and adaptation of existing OER. Faculty can apply for these funds now as they explore their choices for course material selection. It may not be the answer to everything, but OER does offer hope for alleviating some of the costs associated with higher education.  What do you think?  Stop by the library and let us know!

Open Access research guide
Open Access website

[1] MISO 2025 survey

[2] Miao, F, Mishra, S, Orr, D and Janssen, B. 2019. Guidelines on the development of open educational resources policies. UNESCO Publishing, p. 9.

[3] Miao et al. Guidelines on the development of open educational resources policies. p. 11.