Longhorn Textbook Access (LTA). A partnership with the University Co-op designed to reduce the cost of digital textbooks and other course materials for students. Provides faculty support to choose course learning materials.
UT Libraries also provides information and support for OER course materials. Visit the OER Guide and learn why it might be a good fit for your course and understand the impacts and benefits.
If you would like help identifying OER materials for a particular course, please use this Free & Affordable Course Materials Review Request form.
Watch Dr. Joshua Barbour (Associate Professor, Communication Studies) and Ashley Morrison (Tocker Open Education Librarian) explain OER, show how it's used effectively in Dr. Barbour's course, and tell you how to get help with OER at UT Austin.
OER Repositories
Links to all these resources (and more!) can be found at http://bit.ly/OpenAccessibleUT
Guest Post - Space and Grace in Open Access Publishing, by Dustin Fife; from The Scholarly Kitchen, May 5, 2021.
"We should strive for open but also be realistic about the options truly available to researchers and discuss them transparently and honestly."
A. Yes! Even if students don't have to purchase your selected course materials, it's useful to do this because your materials will then show up in the "My Textbooks" section of Canvas. Students can access course materials directly from this tab, and it will include both commercial texts and OER if you are using a mix. If you miss that deadline, those materials can be sourced from the OER publisher (e.g., OpenStax) and/or posted directly to your Canvas course.
Free attendance or some with registration fees.
If you're a student interested in learning more about OER or getting involved with advocacy efforts, these resources will get you started. Contact Heather Walter, Open Education Librarian, for more information or support.
What is open education, anyway? Start with the Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC)'s primer.
Stay in the know about OER at UT Austin by joining our email interest list. We'll keep you informed about upcoming workshops, new programs on campus and in the state, and other news you can use.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Generic License.