Open and Affordable Textbooks Program Eases Financial Burden for Rutgers Students

Course materials are notoriously expensive, and their cost can have serious impacts on students and their education. According to a recent national survey, more than half of college students have taken fewer courses or avoided taking a particular course due to the cost of required course materials.

Rutgers University Libraries offer an Open and Affordable Textbooks (OAT) Program that incentivizes the replacement of high-cost course materials with low-cost and no-cost alternatives. The annual program awards research funds to Rutgers instructors who make their courses more affordable for their students by using low-cost materials, library content, or open educational resources.

The program is now accepting applications in two categories:

• The OAT Course Redesign Award ($2,500) incentivizes the use of open educational resources (OER), library collections, or other free or low-cost course materials.
• The OAT Authoring Award ($3,500) supports the creation and development of a new open textbook for use at Rutgers and beyond.

Each year, these awards result in significant cost savings for thousands of Rutgers students, but that is only part of the story. Once a course instructor incorporates open and affordable materials, the change benefits all sections and subsequent semesters in which that course is offered.

Since the OAT Program was first established during the 2016–2017 academic year, 64,595 Rutgers students have saved a cumulative estimate of $13.14 million. Rutgers University Libraries’ investment in the program—$148,500 to date—is modest by comparison.

According to Rhonda Marker, head of open knowledge strategies at Rutgers University Libraries, the benefits of the program may go even further than the numbers suggest. “What we are hearing from people who have received this award in the past is that OAT can lead to fundamental shifts in an instructor’s way of thinking,” Marker said. “One award for one course leads them to rethink their approach to materials for other courses. The program truly is creating a ripple effect.”

Three-time award recipient Sean Duffy, an associate professor of psychology at Rutgers University–Camden, called OAT “the most important project Rutgers has had in the 20 years I have been here.” Having struggled to afford textbooks when he was a college student, Duffy has spent many years looking for ways to help his students save money on required materials. Often, this meant encouraging students to buy older editions of assigned textbooks.

“Then, once the OAT program started, there were textbooks that one could download from the internet. Many were older editions of a textbook written by a scholar that was retiring and no longer cared about the income from the book. Others were written by earnest young professors who truly believe in the idea that knowledge should be freely accessible by all. And they are great textbooks.”

“At Rutgers University Libraries, helping students succeed is our north star,” says Consuella Askew, vice president for university libraries and university librarian. “The OAT Program removes a potential barrier to that success and helps ensure affordable access to a quality education—and that’s really what Rutgers is all about.”