A faculty-centered initiative to make learning more affordable, expand equitable access, and spark thoughtful teaching innovation across CSU. We partner with faculty, working together to discover, adapt, create, and share open educational resources that benefit students, strengthen teaching, and extend CSU’s impact beyond the classroom.
This university-wide collaboration is focused on removing barriers to student success by facilitating access to low- or no-cost textbooks and course materials, while also promoting pedagogical innovation and improved student outcomes. We work with faculty, departments, and campus partners to help identify, adopt, create, and share affordable and open course materials, with the goal of supporting textbook affordability, day-one student access, teaching flexibility, and the thoughtful use of open educational resources, library materials, and other no-cost options. Together, we build momentum, share examples, and make affordability efforts visible and sustainable over time.
We support faculty choice. In some courses, an open textbook is the right fit; in others, library resources, openly licensed materials, or other affordable approaches may work better. The goal is not one model for every class, but the best educational and financial outcome for students.
Teamwork is essential to the success of this initiative. Campus departments involved in this initiative include the Michael Schwartz Library, CSU College of Law Library, Center for eLearning, Center for Faculty Excellence, Center for Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, and Student Government Association, among others, with ongoing support from the Provost's Office.
These pathways are designed to keep affordable learning work manageable and clear, with options for beginning, expanding, or coordinating efforts across courses and programs.
Support for faculty who want to adopt, adapt, or create affordable course materials. This should remain a core destination and can later point to the most current application timeline and requirements.
Rather than maintaining a separate static highlights page, this section links to a research guide that can be updated to keep current faculty profiles, examples, and advocacy material.
Events, workshops, and calls for participation can live here in a more easily maintained location rather than on a static web page.
Co-sponsored by the Michael Schwartz Library and the Student Government Association, the Textbook Hero Award is awarded annually to honor faculty leadership and celebrate the culture of affordability taking shape across CSU.
Faculty across CSU are already showing what affordable learning can look like in practice: thoughtful, creative, and student-centered, one course and one faculty idea at a time. See also Open Textbooks in Action.
“[Using an OER] saves my students approximately $25,000 every academic year. My students are better prepared because they have the book and I can teach more efficiently because I know everyone has the material. The success rates in my course are now consistently over 90% (C or higher) and students frequently take additional theatre courses because they had such a good experience. It really is a win-win situation.”
- Lisa Bernd, Theatre & Dance
“Several students have expressed gratitude for the free textbook. I used to see one or two students falter or drop during the semester when the free Connect access expired. That did not happen with the OER textbook!!”
- Candice Vander Weerdt, Marketing
“The results [of switching to an OER] were better than anyone expected. When compared to control courses offered during the same semester, the course with module-based learning and an open textbook produced more A’s and B’s while reducing the failure rate significantly. ... The students also found that having the book from Day 1 without ordering was a major factor in getting off to a great start in the course.”
- Shawn Ryan, Math
CSU is working with faculty and others across the university to develop Z-degrees, or zero-textbook-cost degree pathways, that help students move through higher education without financial barriers and give schools and departments a compelling recruitment story.
A Z-degree is a complete degree program in which required course resources carry no additional cost to students. These materials can include:
This model keeps the landing page strong and current while shifting fast-changing material to platforms librarians can update more easily.