Supporting students with open educational resources
KALAMAZOO, Mich.—The University continues to support students through our Open Educational Resources (OER) Grants program. In 2025, we awarded 12 adoption grants to help instructors transition their courses from using expensive commercial textbooks to OER that are free for students. The grants are expected to save students an estimated $94,130 in textbook costs, based on projected 2025 and 2026 course enrollment.
We also awarded three creation grants to support faculty in developing new open textbooks on health communications, business data and social work, benefiting Western students and learners globally. Because OER have open licenses, anyone in the world can access, use and adapt the materials for educational purposes.
“Because the books will be published with a Creative Commons license, rather than traditional copyright, people will be able to use the portions of the books that pertain to a variety of other areas,” says Michele Behr, scholarly communications and open educational resources librarian.
The proposed topics have broad appeal, and “communicating about health and data are relevant issues for a variety of fields.”
Spring 2025 OER Adoption Grant recipients
- Dr. Peter Gustafson, AE 4630
- Dr. Pavel Ikonomov, EDMM 3540
- Dr. Elizabeth Isidro, LS 6300
- Dr. Cristina Fava*, MUS 2700 and MUS 2710
- Dr. Amanda Quist, MUS 5810
- Dr. Chitra Singh, FCS 5340
Fall 2025 OER Adoption Grant recipients
- Dr. Elissa Allen, NUR 3320
- Dr. Julie Apker, COM 2800
- Dr. Whitney DeCamp, SOC 3650
- Dr. Zoann Snyder, SOC 4420
- Marian Tripplett, SWRK 4010
- Amy Zufelt, BCM 4310 and BCM 4340
Fall 2025 OER Creation Grant recipients
- Dr. Julie Apker, COM 4840
- Marie Moreno, BCM 2400
- Dr. Dee Sherwood, SWRK 2100
*Awarded to Dr. Lauron Kehrer and transferred to Dr. Cristina Fava, who will teach MUS 2700 in fall 2025 and MUS 2710 in spring 2026.