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Textbook Broke

Textbook prices continue to soar and we’re finding that many students either can’t afford to buy course-required material or are willing to find other, often illegal ways of accessing textbook material. This is equitable! Students should not be forced to choose between buying textbooks and doing well in class. A long-term solution is urgently needed to make course materials more affordable.

Textbook Broke is our annual campaign to make learning materials more affordable by getting more professors to start using Open Educational Resources (OERs).

OERs are digital resources come in a variety of mediums including open access textbooks, journals, videos, practice sets, and any other course material that can be shared, edited, and redistributed. OERs remove financial barriers by replacing expensive textbooks and course-required material with free digital resources.

OERs are openly licensed – this means that faculty can continuously modify and update content, letting faculty to mold OERs to best fit their teaching style, rather than adapting courses around existing resources.

YOU can get UBC to make better use of OERs

Actually use OERs – you can be the best advocate for these resources by simply using them for your research and to understand your course material better.
Tell others about OERs and encourage them to use them.
Utilize your course evaluations at the end of the semester to let your professors know what you thought about the course materials that they used.

Check out the UBC Open site to find and start using OERs.