Thirty-eight WVUP courses have been reconfigured to use no-cost resources instead of costly textbooks, easing the financial burden of students and reducing one barrier to degree completion.
During the 2019-2020 academic year, faculty at West Virginia University at Parkersburg taught a total of thirty-eight revamped courses that were designed to eliminate the need for students to purchase expensive textbooks. The move saved students $140,860 in total. This was achievable through the use of open education resources (OER). OER are learning and teaching materials available at no-cost through open licensing for free access use. These types of freely available materials are one strategy of making higher education more accessible to students who struggle with the financial burdens of attaining post-secondary degrees. In addition to the financial benefit of OER, students and teachers also can access materials that are more inclusive of a variety of learning styles while being user-friendly.
In a news release from West Virginia University at Parkersburg, Dave Thompson, WVUP Humanities, Fine Arts and Social Sciences chairperson elaborated on additional plusses of switching to OER, "User-friendliness, and reduced frustration, should also be achieved by making a course easy to understand and navigate. This means having no access codes to be purchased or accounts created so course content is available on the first day of class." Provost Chad Crumbaker expressed the university's commitment to continuing with this trend toward using more no-cost materials, "Investing in our own faculty's development of OER means WVU Parkersburg will continue to be more affordable for students. Textbook costs should not be a barrier to a student's education and success, and we commend the efforts of our faculty to eliminate these cost barriers through OER wherever possible."