Making the cost of college more affordable for students is an essential strategy for enhancing access to higher education. At Wilmington University, the Division of Online and Experiential Learning (DOEL) educational team has partnered with the WilmU Library since 2018 to incorporate open education resources (OERs) and other free or low-cost alternatives to traditional education resources, commercial textbooks into online offerings.
To date, DOEL has worked with program chairs and faculty to develop more than 200 online courses that incorporate no-cost solutions for students, in many cases eliminating the need to buy textbooks. Librarians have supported the initiative by assisting more than 40 faculty members with over 50 course content requests related to replacing a resource, locating library resources, or incorporating OER. As a result of these efforts, 12 certificates and two graduate programs have been developed with no-cost instructional materials.
The program continues to expand based on student satisfaction, removing an economic barrier for students intent on following their educational aspirations.