By the AMS Office of Academic & University Affairs and the AMS MarCom team
On average undergrad students pay over $1200 per year on textbooks. With affordability being one of the largest concerns amongst students, rising textbook costs mean students going without course materials because of other financial burdens, like food or housing.
Open Educational Resources (OERs) are free learning resources tailored to your courses. Resources include textbooks, journal articles, test banks, videos, and more. OERs benefit everyone – they reduce student costs for learning materials and give instructors more flexibility with adapting resources to their courses and teaching goals.
The following UBC instructors are just a few on campus who use OERs in their courses. In 2026, these instructors were named UBC Teaching & Learning Champions for their efforts to make education at UBC more affordable and accessible.
RMST_V 202 (Introduction to Literatures and Cultures of the Romance World II: Modern to Post-Modern) with Dr. Jon Beasley-Murray
RMST_V 202 (Introduction to Literatures and Cultures of the Romance World II: Modern to Post-Modern) with Dr. Jon Beasley-Murray integrates videos, podcasts, blogs, and openly licensed textbook.
PHAR_V 203 and PHAR_V 304 with Dr. Alexander Smith
PHAR_V 203 (Genetics for the Pharmaceutical Sciences) & PHAR_V 304 (Techniques in Molecular Biology and Pharmacology Theory and Laboratory) with Dr. Alexander Smith provides students course materials and tools at no cost, including lab manuals, virtual textbooks, and software for data analysis and visualization.
POLI_V 260 and POLI_V 360 with Dr. Arjun Chowdhury
POLI_V 260 (Introduction to Global Politics) and POLI_V 360 (Security Studies) with Dr. Arjun Chowdhury provides students with foundational readings that are fully accessible online at no cost.
ECON_V 317 (Poverty and Inequality) with Dr. David Green
Dr. David Green ensures ECON_V 317 (Poverty and Inequality) students can access course materials at no cost by sharing readings and instructor-created notes, with no required textbook.
CONS_V 200 (Foundations of Conservation) with Dr. Fernanda Tomaselli
Dr. Fernanda Tomaselli curates her course materials to ensure they are freely accessible and available in a range of formats. She also engages students in CONS_V 200 (Foundations of Conservation) in a large open pedagogy project where they create and publish conservation-focused OER.
POLI_V 375 and POLI_V 464 with Dr. Peter Dauvergne
Dr. Peter Dauvergne creates a cost-free learning environment in POLI_V 375 (Global Environmental Politics) and POLI_V 464 (Advanced Topics in International Relations: Global Environmental Politics: Sustainability and Justice) by using free materials and activities and selecting useful, thought-provoking readings.
MES_V 300 (The Middle East: Critical Questions and Debates) with Dr. Pheroze Unwalla
Dr. Pheroze Unwalla makes MES_V 300 (The Middle East: Critical Questions and Debates) course readings available at no cost, supporting access to diverse perspectives and key debates in the field.
COMM_V 205 (Introduction to Management Information Systems) with Dr. Zorana Svedic
Dr. Zorana Svedic uses a free open-source textbook in COMM_V 205 (Introduction to Management Information Systems), which reduces financial barriers and keeps the course materials accessible.
