Initiatives: Open Educational Resources

Maryland Open Source Textbook Initiative

With the passage of The Textbook Cost Savings Act of 2017, the Maryland General Assembly charged the USM’s Kirwan Center with supporting and scaling the adoption of "openly licensed, fully accessible" instructional materials across Maryland public higher education institutions through the Maryland Open Source Textbook (M.O.S.T.) initiative.

M.O.S.T. began in 2013 to provide a statewide opportunity for faculty and institutions to explore the promise of open educational resources (OERs) to reduce students' cost of attendance while maintaining, or perhaps even improving, learning outcomes.  OERs are any openly licensed instructional materials that are also typically available at little or no cost. The term can include textbooks, course readings, and other learning content; simulations, games, and other learning applications; syllabi, quizzes, and assessment tools; and virtually any other material that can be used for instructional purposes.

The M.O.S.T. initiative has saved students over $14.2 million in textbook costs from Spring 2014 through Fall 2020.  Learn more about M.O.S.T. and find resources to support your OER adoption.

Our Work in Open Educational Resources

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December 6, 2018

At the 15th annual Open Education Conference in Niagara Falls, NY, Dr. MJ Bishop, Associate Vice Chancellor and Director of the University System of Maryland William E. Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation, delivered a keynote address that implored attendees to leverage the affordances of open educational resources to increase access, affordability and achievement for all students' success.  Watch a video of the keynote.

The 2018 OpenEd Conference drew in attendees from all over the world and hosted over 350 presentations, posters, roundtables, lightning talks, panels, and symposia to explore open pedagogy, practices and resources.

October 9, 2018

This fall, the Kirwan Center will expand the scope of its Maryland Open Source Textbook (M.O.S.T.) initiative to make learning materials more affordable for students. This work is being made possible by a $1 million grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s Education program.

May 29, 2018

As part of a first wave of new services, the M.O.S.T. initiative has launched the M.O.S.T. Course Hub to support Maryland faculty in finding easy-to-adopt, high-quality OER.

Started in 2013 as a collaboration between the University System of Maryland’s Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation and the system-wide student council, M.O.S.T. was charged in 2017 by the state legislature with supporting and scaling the adoption of “openly licensed, fully accessible” instructional materials across Maryland public higher education institutions.

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