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Contact: Sasha Steinberg

STARKVILLE, Miss.ā€”A recently formed Mississippi State committee is raising awareness this week of a new campus initiative to make learning more affordable to students and lessen the cost of course materials.

Now through March 6, the 14-member group is recognizing Open Education Week as a way to familiarize students with Open Educational Resources, or OERsā€”teaching, learning and research tools free of cost and access barriers. The globally celebrated week showcases the impact of open education on teaching and learning.

An Ļć½¶Ö±²„Student Association and University Libraries recommendation has been accepted by Ļć½¶Ö±²„Provost David Shaw and other Ļć½¶Ö±²„administrators for the implementation of OER course materials.

Ļć½¶Ö±²„SA President Jake Manning, a senior biomedical engineering and software engineering double-major from Ridgeland, said the rising cost of textbooks can put a financial burden on students and affect their academic success. He said the average textbook costs between $170 and $180, so a lot of students rent or sell them back at the end of the semester to recoup some of this money for other needs.

ā€œThe OER program weā€™re working to implement is a win-win for students,ā€ Manning said. ā€œIt can save them a lot of money on textbooks and ensure they retain access to that content as reference material for their upper-level classes.ā€

Mary Ann Jones, Ļć½¶Ö±²„Libraries associate professor and scholarly communication coordinator, is among faculty serving on the universityā€™s OER steering committee. She said in addition to affordability for students, OERs provide faculty with ā€œboundless opportunities to disseminate knowledge to a new generation of learners.ā€

ā€œEducators can curate, tailor and share OERs to perfectly suit their curriculum, and share their innovations freely,ā€ she said. ā€œOER creation is limitless and allows for an ever-expanding creative landscape for new methods of teaching and learning.ā€

A timeline for implementation and further details of the OER initiative will be determined by the OER steering committee. In addition to Jones and Manning, committee members include:

ā€”Tommy Anderson, associate dean for academic affairs and professor of English, College of Arts and Sciences

ā€”Cheryl Bowen, director of budget and planning, Division of Student Affairs

ā€”John Dickerson, assistant vice president for enrollment and university registrar

ā€”Kiley Forsythe, instructional resource consultant and online learning strategist, Center for Distance Education

ā€”Meredith Jackson, deputy chief information officer and director of enterprise information systems, Information Technology Services

ā€”Andrew Jarosz, assistant professor, Department of Psychology

ā€”Seongjai Kim, professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics

ā€”Kris King, instructional designer, Center for Teaching and Learning

ā€”Deborah Lee, associate dean of public services, Ļć½¶Ö±²„Libraries

ā€”Joan Lucas, general counsel

ā€”Jennifer McPherson, financial analyst, Division of Finance and Administration

ā€”Peter Ryan, associate provost for academic affairs

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