What is OER?
Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research resources that either reside in the public domain or are licensed in a manner that permits their free use and re-purposing by others.
Because OER are "open," users may engage in the so-called 5R activities - Retain, Reuse, Revise, Remix, and Redistribute - which provides useful flexibility and exciting pedagogical possibilities.
Libraries Open Educational Resources (OER) supports instructors' efforts to provide accessible and affordable course materials for students.
Questions?
Catherine Fraser Riehle
Associate Professor Teaching & Learning Librarian
Why OER?
OER cost savings of $2,075,400, impacting 20,754 students in 567 courses.
UNL faculty that use, adapt, or create their own Open Educational Resources (OER) with support from a STAR OER seed grant have saved students over $2 million dollars in textbook costs since 2023. From 2023-2025 OER have been used in at least 567 UNL classes, increasing pedagogical flexibility for instructors and making education more affordable for over 20,000 students.
University Libraries celebrates and supports the open sharing of knowledge during International Open Access (OA) week.
Supporting Resources
Funding Support
CTT Seed Grants
OER Seed Grants support UNL’s STAR initiative by providing funding and consultation to instructors who want to create or adapt open educational resources as alternatives to traditional textbooks and licensed course materials.
CTT Seed GrantsA 5R Resource
Pressbooks
Pressbooks is a simple book production software provided to UNL faculty to create and publish open textbooks, scholarly monographs, syllabi, fiction and non-fiction books, white papers, and more.
PressbooksLibraries Consultations
Course Materials Review
Libraries faculty provide consultations for instructors seeking more affordable or open course materials. Instructors can request a consultation by sharing their syllabus or current reading list.
Request a Course Materials Review ConsultationFunding Support
Libraries Grant Funds
Grant funds are available for instructors who choose to replace all or some of their current course materials with no or low-cost alternatives.
Libraries Grant Funds