Open Educational Resources (OER)

Free textbooks

Low-cost and No-cost Textbooks

We Remove Barriers

Are you tired of paying the high cost of textbooks? Are you forced to make tough financial choices regarding course materials? Do you wish there was an affordable way? There is! Low- and no-cost textbooks are the solution to the increasingly cost-prohibitive textbook market. More and more BCC classes are using low- and no-cost textbooks.

No-cost textbooks are free of charge, free to copy and free to share. They are available on the first day of class. No more anxiously waiting for textbooks to arrive. And, no more textbook stress.

Low-cost textbooks are published materials that cost $50 or less. The state of Massachusetts sets the cost for low-cost textbooks, which BCC has adopted.

Students

How much have low- and no-cost textbooks saved BCC students so far?

2022 – 2023 Estimate: $336,736

Student Textbook Survey

In September 2023, the Student OER Committee created a survey to measure textbook costs and their impacts on BCC students.

OER Spotlight and News

Read about BCC professors work with OER:

The Microbe Mentor: Professor Amanda Lardizabal is Interviewed by OpenStax

Professor Wins Open Education Resources Award

OER Spotlight

Faculty

OER LibGuide

Looking for OER materials? Our BCC OER LibGuide contains many open resource repositories, as well as information on Creative Commons copyright licenses, adapting and creating OERs, and much more.

OER Moodle Workshop

This OER workshop was created by Matt Martin, Coordinator of Instructional Design. The overarching goal for the workshop is to help all participants gain a deeper understanding of open educational resources and practices. Put simply, we hope that at the conclusion of this workshop, you'll have a richer picture of the OER available for you to use, get a sense for the possibilities for using it, and find ways to keep moving open education forward, in your own teaching practice and beyond. For more information about the Moodle Workshop, email Matt Martin or stop by Teaching and Learning Innovation.