UNO Magazine: The Future of Education is Open

From the Spring 2023 UNO Magazine

As a first-generation college student, Jabin Moore experienced some sticker shock the first time he purchased books for his classes at UNO.

“I was very surprised by the cost of textbooks,” said Moore, who attended UNO from 2017 to 2021 and graduated with a business degree. “I didn’t know what to expect, and I got my books ahead of time. I slowly learned the tricks that students would use to get around having to purchase the overpriced books.”

Jabin Moore

For Moore and other students, that meant joining a book exchange group on social media, searching for used materials online or, in the worst-case scenario, simply not buying one and hoping for the best. “I think this causes a greater obstacle than many are aware of,” Moore said. “Some students will get through class never buying a book, but others aren’t so lucky.”

Now there’s a better option, one that will benefit students at UNO and other University of Nebraska campuses long after Moore has moved on to start his career. An initiative called Open Nebraska allows students to save money with access to free or reduced-cost digital course materials, including e-books, lab manuals, articles or videos.

“The reason that it’s really powerful is because everything is focused on reducing the price tag of textbooks for a learner and getting the course materials in the learner’s hands on the first day of the semester,” said Dr. Jaci Lindburg, UNO’s associate vice chancellor of Innovative and Learning-Centric Initiatives.

In the past decade, the cost of traditional textbooks increased 88% nationwide. Lindburg noticed how rising costs could hit UNO students particularly hard because of the university’s large number of first-generation or part-time students who juggle school, work and other obligations.

The cost of course materials isn’t just a source of aggravation. It impacts academic performance because students are more likely to fall behind in class if they don’t have the books on day one of the semester.

“They don’t have them on the first day of the semester and it’s because they are literally rolling the dice,” Lindburg said. “They’re saying, ‘I’m not going to spend $1,000 and not know if I’m going to need this.’ But even if you wait several weeks in a semester, that student is falling behind.”

Open Nebraska provides access to various types of low-cost or no-cost materials. There are digital e-books or digital course materials that cost students no more than $40. The university makes use of what’s known as Open Educational Resources, or OER. These are materials that are either in the public domain or released under license.

A key element of Open Nebraska is the way it combines digital access with enhanced transparency so students have a clear picture of the cost of course materials and the availability of digital options at the time of registration. In some disciplines, like sociology, it’s possible to go through the full track of their undergraduate degree program without paying more than $40 for most materials.

“Which is amazing,” Lindburg said. “Sociology is doing a really neat thing as a discipline where you can, through a program that’s available nationally, buy a chapter for a dollar and then remix that content to be exactly what the faculty member wants and needs.”

Lindburg said the program’s success depends on the cooperation of faculty, technology services and the library. All work together to provide materials that aren’t just affordable, they’re easy to access and they meet academic standards.

“It’s something that librarians have really latched on to because librarians like to see open access,” said David Richards, dean of Library Services at UNO. “What we’re finding is people love this concept. The faculty love it. Obviously, the student loves it.”

Richards said UNO benefits from having a librarian, Craig Finlay, who specializes in Open Educational Resources and works closely with UNO faculty to create digital course materials that meet their needs.

“It’s custom designed by the faculty member to make it a quality textbook,” Richards said. “If the faculty member designs this text, he or she realizes that the material that’s put into this open source or Open Educational Resource is going to be used. There’s no waste.”

The numbers illustrate Open Nebraska’s impact since the program started to gain momentum in 2018. As of the fall 2022 semester, Open Nebraska has saved students more than $13 million across the four campuses. At UNO, student savings will pass $4 million during the spring semester of 2023.

On average, college students spend $1,200 a year on textbooks, so Open Nebraska amounts to “a little scholarship” to every student in class, Richards said.

Lindburg said the university tracks the DFW rate, which refers to students who get a D or an F or withdraw from a particular course. In Open Nebraska courses, students had a 4% lower DFW rate and 5% more earned an A grade.

“We’ve seen roughly double that for the population we want to support in all the ways we can, who typically have more obstacles in front of them,” Lindburg said. “We’ve seen an 8% lower DFW rate for our part-time students. That’s a huge difference. We’ve seen 10% more A’s for our first-generation students. These are folks who are the first in their families to navigate this environment.”

For many students, Open Nebraska is about more than saving money or even acing a class. It removes some of the stress involved with college.

“I think it adds a lot more peace of mind,” said Tori Sims, a sociology major who serves as the student president and regent at UNO. “It helps to know how much exactly you’re going to pay for textbooks.”

Sims said they paid about $200 to $300 for books during the spring semester in 2023, which was the highest they’ve seen in their college career. “It definitely helps,” they said of the program. “It was a surprise how much it can add up.”

Tori Sims

Moore is credited with making Open Nebraska a priority when he served as UNO’s student president and regent from 2020 to 2021. He heavily promoted the concept for all four campuses and saw it as a way to improve access and outcomes.

“The cost of textbooks was always a pain point for me and other students,” he said. “Tuition is already high, and many UNO students have to support themselves.”

The program proved beneficial for all kinds of students. UNO athletes found that ready access to digital materials came in handy as they attempted to balance a full course load with the demands of practice and travel for games.

“They always have it with them as much as they have their phones and computers with them,” said Lindsey Edwerekwu, UNO’s executive associate athletic director. “It’s one less thing to worry about. One less delay, perhaps, in getting started on their work in a meaningful way.”

Dani Brooke, UNO’s assistant athletic director for student-athlete development, said 120 of 340 student-athletes have their books paid for as part of a scholarship. That means lower-cost materials benefit both the student and the athletic department, depending on who is covering the cost. More than anything, she said, the student-athlete benefits if they are more successful.

“It’s a huge asset for academic performance,” Brooke said. “It sets them up for success.”

Not all academic disciplines utilize Open Nebraska in the same way. Lindburg said UNO’s sociology department is almost completely bought in, as is the math department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Richards said faculty support has been almost universal – something that is not always the case in an academic setting – although some graduate-level courses don’t lend themselves to digital or open-access materials as much. He also said the expansion of Open Nebraska can be dependent on availability of grants and other resources to assist faculty in developing high-quality digital materials.

Richards, who has a background in rare books, said the popularity of Open Nebraska shows that the digital age may not have started in the university library, but it’s there to stay now.

“If you would have asked me a question about OER 10 years ago, I wouldn’t have known what you were talking about,” he said. “A significant percentage of individuals are willing to do things like this. They are willing to see what they can collaborate on to change things that need to be changed for the better.”

College graduates of a certain age may remember going to the bookstore prior to the start of the semester to peruse all the books on hand. Stacks and stacks of books. Lindburg said she used to be one of those students.

She said Open Nebraska doesn’t eliminate that experience as much as complement it. There’s nothing to stop a student from printing out digital materials or getting a textbook and coating the pages with a high-lighter.

“We get asked that question a lot,” she said. “What about the student that wants to hold the book? What about the student that wants to mark it up and feel it? This is not meant to replace that. It can be both. If a student wants that and can afford it, we can usually get a physical copy in their hands.”

For information on how you can support Open Nebraska, contact Sue Kutschkau, Executive Director, UNO Development at sue.kutschkau@nufoundation.org or 402-502-4109.