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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October 12, 2017

Are you passionate about the use of OER and interested in engaging others in adopting OER by sharing your experiences – both what has worked and what hasn’t? Have you created new open content within your field or discipline? Do you have OER content adoption strategies to share? Have you seen significant savings with respect to student course costs? Has the use of OER led to broader redesigns of courses? Greater student engagement or student learning?

August 1, 2017

In Spring 2017, the University System of Maryland's William E. Kirwan Center launched the Maryland Open Source Textbook (M.O.S.T.) initiative High-impact OER Mini-Grant program to target high-enrollment general education courses with existing high-quality OER.  In Fall 2017, the Mini-Grant program has the potential to impact over 8,000 students in two- and four-year Maryland public higher education institutions with over $1.3 million in textbook savings. To document the development process of the High-impact OER Mini-Grant program, the Kirwan Center has released a guide to support the creation of institutional and system-wide OER mini-grant programs.

March 30, 2017

Twelve Maryland Public Higher Education Institutions Receive Mini-Grants to Increase the Use of Open Educational Resources

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