Open and Affordable Educational Resources (OER/AER) at LSU
February 7, 2023
Since 2020 the LSU Libraries have been part of a university-wide course affordability initiative for Implementing Affordable Educational Resources (AER) and Open Educational Resources (OER), which works to provide faculty with support and options to make their courses more affordable and accessible.
OER are free teaching materials, distributed online, that allow anyone to copy, use, adapt, and remix the materials for their specific needs. OER are commonly used as alternatives to expensive textbooks by providing students with high-quality course readings at no cost. AER includes single or collections of required resource(s) offered at no or low cost to students at a pre-sales tax cost not to exceed an amount equal to four times the federal minimum wage.
LSU Libraries offers numerous resources and services to help modify courses to make them AER/OER compatible, such as:
- More than 400,000 AER book options to adopt for courses.
- Individualized consultation services with our subject librarians to help faculty identify and adopt high-Quality OER/AER course material for specific disciplines.
- Open licensing allows faculty and instructors to have greater control over course content.
- Assistance in obtaining materials not yet available through our collection.
- Consultations regarding copyright considerations.
If you're interested in exploring OER/AER but don't know where to start, try browsing the library’s e-textbook database that contains eBooks that the library already owns or can purchase. If you can’t find what you are looking for, we also provide consultations and support to explore developing your own OER. When you complete your course listing information, please be sure to identify if the course is OER or AER so students will know what resource options are available.
If you still have questions, this online guide provides more information about the mandate and the support to make courses more affordable.