The use of low- and no-cost course materials on college campuses is on the rise—with the adoption of open educational resources (OER)[1] growing significantly.[2] Faculty have responded to the kind of information shared in the 2023 Illinois Course materials survey: Student perspective report, which notes that “all demographics of students expressed that the cost of course materials is adversely impacting their academic careers.”[3] NIU students who completed the survey talked about emptying out their savings, taking fewer or dropping classes, skipping meals, and doing poorly when they did not have access to required materials.[4] One student revealed: “It makes me stressed about how I will afford everything I need instead of focusing on the courses like I should be doing instead of the prices of the books necessary.”[5] Our faculty are listening. Here at NIU, 18,020 students were enrolled in courses designated as low or zero cost in MyNIU in 2024-2025—a 23% increase over the previous academic year.[6]
This shift away from costlier course materials is getting some unwanted attention. Recently, a number of commercial publishers and vendors have stepped up efforts to disrupt the adoption, adaption, and creation of free and affordable course materials. Across the country, faculty and administrators have been receiving emails and other marketing materials with subject lines such as “Supercharge Your Teaching: Say Goodbye to OER.” The messages being circulated misrepresent and disparage open educational resources while promoting vendor products that require faculty and/or students to pay for access to materials from Expert TA or Cengage.
Expert TA asserts that while OER and low-cost options do reduce student spending, “these materials can require major course redesigns, or lead to ‘cobbled’ solutions that confuse students,” but their Editable eBooks platform “make it easy to adopt, modify, and enhance OER materials.”[7] Many faculty already use individual chapters or sections of books, articles, videos, or other resources by simply linking to these in Blackboard. And for those who want to customize materials to create a new text or remix existing ones, there are free platforms available, such as inkie.org or LibreTexts which NIU faculty, students, and staff have access to.
Cengage declares that “In contrast to Open Education Resources (OER) textbooks, [its] materials . . . are meticulously curated by subject matter experts, ensuring accurate and up-to-date content.”[8] However, most OER creators are subject matter experts who can easily, and often do, update their materials more regularly than commercial publishers. The email also suggests that Cengage online learning platforms “have been proven to raise grades,” but the studies they refer to are not peer reviewed.[9]
Many vendors and industry organizations promoting automatic textbook billing programs for students—sometimes referred to as “inclusive access”[10]—also declare that they “reduce students’ cost of attendance.” In addition, they assert that automatic textbook billing leads to better educational outcomes. There is a dearth of peer reviewed studies to back either of those claims. Further, most reports or messages do not acknowledge that the day-one access to digital materials they extol is also built into OER but at zero cost to students: which has helped contribute to the overall decline in textbook costs since 2018-2019.[11]
There are excellent commercially-produced textbooks, many of which are affordable or worth what they cost. And while the number of high-quality open educational resources increases every day—including the materials being created by NIU faculty authors who are part of the Libraries’ HuskiesUnbound: Developing OER for undergraduate success in high-impact courses grant (awarded by the Illinois Secretary of State/Illinois State Library)[12]—there may not be existing OER to meet the needs of every course. But crafting new materials or building amazing resources from openly licensed content (or from the course content the instructor has already developed as part of teaching the class) is a viable option. As one NIU faculty member reminds, “Moving away from traditional textbooks can take time, but it doesn’t have to be onerous. Do what you can, when you can.” And, of course, seek out support from campus partners such as the Course Materials Affordability Task Force.[13] Your subject specialist librarian may also be able to assist you in finding library-owned or licensed materials is another strategy too.
Faculty want to make the best choices when developing their courses: carefully selecting materials and crafting assignments that align with their pedagogy and the course’s learning outcomes to ensure that students will grow and thrive even after the semester ends. But it is difficult for many of our students to succeed academically because they are struggling financially—especially when it comes to paying for course materials. Faculty have academic freedom and can and should choose the course materials most appropriate for their courses. But they need to have accurate information so they can make those choices: not half-truths that distort the course materials landscape.
For information about all the affordable course material options, visit the NIU Open Education site or reach out to the Course Materials Affordability Task Force.
[1] OER are defined as “teaching, learning, and research resources that are free of cost and access barriers, and which also carry legal permission for open use. Generally, this permission is granted by use of an open license (for example, Creative Commons licenses) which allows anyone to freely use, adapt and share the resource—anytime, anywhere.” SPARC. (n.d.). Open Education. https://sparcopen.org/open-education/.
[2] Seaman, J. E., & Seaman, J. (2023). Digitally established: Educational resources in US higher education, 2023. Bay View Analytics. https://www.bayviewanalytics.com/reports/digitallyestablished-2023.pdf
[3] Swanson, N., Clarage, E., Leigh, M., Craig, A., Chambers, M. (2024). The 2023 Illinois course materials survey: Student perspective report. Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois. https://www.carli.illinois.edu/sites/files/coll_man/2023IllinoisStudentCouseMaterialsSurveyReport.pdf
[4] Course Materials Affordability Task Force. (2025, May). 2023 Illinois course materials survey: NIU student perspective. Open Education. https://www.niu.edu/open-education/affordable-course-materials/student-perspective-survey/index.shtml
[5] Ibid.
[6] Course Materials Affordability Task Force. (2025, May). Courses taught with low-cost or zero-cost course materials. Open Education. https://www.niu.edu/open-education/affordable-course-materials/courses-with-low-cost-materials.shtml
[7] Expert TA (personal communication ).
[8] Cengage (personal communication March 27, 2025).
[9] Ibid.
[10] See InclusiveAccess.org for definitions and information on these programs: https://www.inclusiveaccess.org/.
[11] Mowreader, A. (2025, April 28). Report: Inclusive-access models as a lever for student success.” Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/student-success/college-experience/2025/04/28/colleges-students-prefer-inclusive-access-models; Association of American Publishers. (2025, June 25). Student spending on college course materials continues multi-year decline [Press release]. https://publishers.org/news/student-spending-on-college-course-materials-continues-multi-year-decline-2/.
[12] Northern Illinois University Libraries. (2024, July 10). NIU Libraries awarded major OER Grant from the Secretary of State/Illinois State Library [Press release]. https://libraries.news.niu.edu/2024/07/10/niu-libraries-awarded-major-oer-grant-from-the-secretary-of-state-illinois-state-library/
[13] Ives, C., Bartlett, M., & Dishke Hondzel, C. (2023). Transformative curriculum design through Open Educational Resource creation. Collected essays on learning and teaching, 14. https://doi.org/10.22329/celt.v14i1.7137.
