ECU professors save students $140k in textbook costs

ADA, Okla. - As textbook prices increase every year, faculty members at East Central University are leading Oklahoma in providing no-cost instructional materials to students through Open Educational Resources, or OERs.

OERs are teaching, learning and research materials that are freely available to access, revise, and adapt under an open license. Instructors can adopt, remix, or compose these materials for their students to use in addition to or in place of expensive textbooks.

"To date for the 2025 academic year, 16 faculty members have transitioned their courses from traditional textbooks to free open educational resources," said librarian Shawna Bishop."These faculty members have helped save students an estimated cost of $140,000 across 25 courses. As ECU continues to commit to the OER initiative, it is expected that these numbers will increase."

Many faculty members are participating in an initiative sponsored by the Oklahoma Regents for Higher Education, which provides grants to support faculty working to implement OERs and recently held a statewide summit in which five ECU faculty members presented their work to encourage other college and university professors across the state to follow their lead.

Left to right: Shelley Bailey, Amy Ward, Destany Schafer-Morgan, Christopher Graham

Faculty members in the Social Work program have seen such success in individual courses that they have begun working toward implementing free resources across their entire degree program. "Social work is a profession dedicated to breaking down barriers. Integrating OERs into the Social Work program aligns seamlessly with this mission, enhancing the accessibility of education for all students," said Amy Ward, director of the Social Work program.

Haley Hoyt, Director of ECU's Academic Success Center, shared the impact that OERs have made on her students and advisees. "Students have mentioned having to wait for birthday money to buy a textbook, or how they have to work a lot of hours to pay for a book. If I can make that expense go away for them, that's what I want to do. Thankfully, we have a lot of faculty who feel that way and are committed to lowering costs for our students."

As ECU continues to prioritize affordability and accessibility, the adoption of OERs is helping ensure that college education is more accessible for all students. For information on ECU's OER initiative, contact the Office of Academic Affairs at [email protected].

Cutline: Left to right: Shawna Bishop, Skye Norman, Haley Hoyt, Wendy McKibben, Sarah Peters and Megan Leach

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