UMass Amherst Libraries Remain Committed to Open Education Initiatives

At a press conference on February 10 with representatives from the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group (MASSPIRG), the UMass Amherst Libraries reiterated their commitment to open education as part of their student success initiatives. 

The students of MASSPIRG recently released the fourth edition of their Fixing the broken textbook market report, which highlights the ever-increasing financial burden of purchasing course materials for higher education, including textbooks, access codes, and automated ‘inclusive access’ billing by universities. 

“Today’s students are responding to historic economic pressures, and the costs of textbooks – hard copy or electronic – are a major barrier to student success. Students face difficult choices about whether to buy their books or pay for basic necessities, and the rise of practices for e-textbooks like automatic billing and digital access codes further limit access and affordability,” State Representative Mindy Domb has said previously. 

To counteract this trend, the Libraries are working to advance an alternative model of open education and open educational resources (OER), in addition to traditional services like course reserves and interlibrary loan. Open educational resources are designed by faculty, often peer-reviewed, and published under an open license that makes them free to use and share. With OER textbooks, students do not need to pay for access, and faculty can even adapt these resources to their individual classes, as well as invite student feedback and contributions. 

“The UMass Libraries are here to support student success in any way we can and with the Open Education Initiative, a joint program between the Libraries and the Provost’s Office here at UMass Amherst,” said Ryan Clement, associate dean, Libraries. “We have been taking necessary steps to ensure that our faculty and students are aware of open educational options for their courses and have opportunities to engage in learning about these options, exploring them, and flipping their courses to a more open model.” 

By offering microgrants, averaging $2,200 each, to faculty to develop OER for their courses, the Libraries have saved students an estimated $2.5 million in educational resources costs since 2011, marking a nearly tenfold return on investment.  

The Libraries are committed to continuing to work alongside student groups such as MASSPIRG and the Student Government Association (SGA) to advocate for the widespread adoption of open education for both student affordability and engagement.