According to a recent report published by Michigan Colleges Online (MCO), Community Colleges in Michigan saved students more than $1.5 million dollars in the Fall of 2016 by using Open Educational Resources (OER).

OERs are freely available educational materials that can be used and reused without charge. NMC faculty members using OER saved students $150k last term alone. NMC students taking courses that used OER commented that:

The material is “Online, convenient and free.”

“OERs make a HUGE difference!”

“I would enroll in more classes if the books were free or low cost.”

“It shows me that professors care about the financial needs of students.”

The MCO OER repository, part of the OER Commons and the place where 28 Michigan community colleges are sharing OER materials, is ready to use.There are many friendly NMC librarians and EMT staff members ready to help you locate resources available in your content area.

Fall 2017 textbook selections are due by mid March and Spring 2018 textbook selections are due in mid April. If you haven’t selected your textbook, consider joining the OER movement. To learn more, go to nmc.libguides.com/oer.