Welcome

For many students at CUNY, the cost of textbooks can be prohibitively expensive. Since nearly forty percent of CUNY’s students come from households with annual incomes of less than $20,000, spending an average of $1,200 per year on books and other supplies is too often an insurmountable barrier to academic success.

One way to reduce textbook costs is by offering courses that use free and online Open Educational Resources (OERs). Open educational resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials freely available for everyone to use. They are typically openly-licensed to allow for re-use and modification by instructors. Materials may consist of a complete course, readings, videos, maps, course modules, assignments, tests, quizzes, textbooks, etc.

If you are interested in providing students with free learning materials, customizing your course materials and enriching your course with a myriad of pedagogical advantages, please consider participating in the CUNY OER/ZTC Initiative. The first step is to make an appointment with Associate Professor and Librarian Miriam Deutch and an OER Developer. We’ll walk through all the possibilities and help you create a wonderful OER.