KU grant program works to cut textbook costs and boost retention

LAWRENCE — A recent $225,000 investment from the Office of the Provost into the Deans’ Open Educational Resources (OER) Grant Initiative aims to reduce textbook-related costs for students and support retention by encouraging adoption of free and public educational materials in high-enrollment courses over the next few years.

According to KU Libraries, the cost of college textbooks and course materials alone has increased more than 800% in the past three decades. However, OERs — public teaching, learning and research resources that anyone can use or repurpose — help ease this financial burden and democratize access to education and continuous learning.

KU Libraries has actively advocated for OERs since 2015, part of the Kansas Board of Regents’ long-standing initiative to support OER adoption at Kansas public institutions. This has included participation in the Open Education Network (OEN) and maintenance of a grant program. Until now, many of those grants have impacted smaller-enrollment courses, but the Deans’ OER Grant Initiative will focus on KU Core 34 and other large courses that many students are required to take.

For the next three years, about $75,000 will be allocated in the Libraries’ annual budget to invest in stipends and other support for related course instructors, as well as a new OER Faculty Fellow, all of whom will work in tandem with existing OER programs. Individual proposals will receive $5,000, and collaborative proposals will receive $10,000. There are $5 bonuses per enrolled student in the course. 

Funds can be used to compensate faculty and graduate students and cover implementation needs in general.

“This meaningful investment by the Office of the Provost positions KU to accelerate OER adoption in high-impact courses where it can truly make a difference for students,” said Carol Smith said, dean of KU Libraries . “By reducing the cost of course materials and expanding access from the first day of class, we can advance both affordability and student success.

“What is especially exciting about this initiative is its collaborative design, which brings together disciplinary faculty, library faculty and other strategic campus partners around a shared commitment to student learning.”

A big step forward

To address high textbook costs, decrease DFW (D, F and Withdrawal letter grades) rates and support retention and completion rates, the Deans Council developed the initiative in conjunction with Josh Bolick, head of scholarly communications and copyright; Heather Mac Bean, open education librarian; and Scott Hanrath, associate dean for research engagement in KU Libraries. 

Student representatives on the 2024-2025 Budget and Tuition Student Advisory Council also previously made recommendations to the Office of the Provost to prioritize expansion and investment in OER, emphasizing the university’s commitment to accessible, affordable education and the student success model led by the Office of the Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs. 

Bolick said an initiative such as this has the potential to be a big step forward at KU.

“Being able to offer larger grant amounts and more coordinated support stands to move the dial for others,” he said. “We hope that results in adoption across more large courses, impacting more students and reducing financial barriers to finishing their degrees at KU. We’re also eager to assess the impact of these interventions to see if we can replicate student success improvements that have been seen in other places.”

As a new program, Mac Bean — who is leading the initiative’s execution and serves as co-chair of KBOR’s Open Up Learning Steering Committee — said the program will be flexible and open to feedback over the years. The aim is to work with two to three interested courses per semester and launch in fall 2026.

While there will be considerable effort to transition courses, Mac Bean said there is a highly knowledgeable network of individuals and units at KU to guide faculty throughout the adoption, adaption and creation process. For now, focus will be put toward adopting and adapting OER to streamline the process.

“It takes work to adopt an OER and transition a class, especially across the courses that have these high enrollment numbers,” Mac Bean said. “Hopefully the grant and other Initiatives we have within the Libraries like helping with Creative Commons licensing and identifying potential textbooks to best suit your needs will help.”

Ultimately, Mac Bean said the university hopes to see positive growth in key success benchmarks by the end of the initial program, which will be tracked throughout.

An evolving landscape

Since KU’s Libraries grant program began, 46 grants have been approved to cover 58 courses, impacting an estimated 13,000 students per academic year. However, this doesn’t account for courses that have been utilizing or exploring OER on their own.

From creating language-learning supplements to transitioning to OER textbooks, KU faculty have been invested in making education more accessible for their students.

Bolick said the OER scene has expanded widely since he first began working in the area around 2015. There were about 250 open textbooks indexed in the Open Textbook Library then, and now there are nearly 1,800.

“Many more institutions are engaged throughout the higher education spectrum,” he said. “There are more dedicated roles like Heather’s, more conferences, more research on the efficacy of OER, more professional development opportunities, and so on. It’s a really vibrant landscape that is approaching challenges in more nuanced ways.”

KU departments and instructors who are interested in early adoption can contact oer@ku.edu and a call for proposals for future semesters will likely go out in late August to early September.

More information and updates can be found at KU Libraries.