Affordable Learning Materials Champions!
Affordable Learning Materials Champions
The Affordable Learning Materials Steering Committee is pleased to announce the Fall 2024 Affordable Learning Materials Champions! ALM Champions are Boise State University faculty who champion affordable learning by adopting evidence-based practices such as open pedagogy, open educational resources, and affordable learning materials in order to reduce the cost of course materials for their students, making a college education more affordable for all Broncos. Here are the ALM Champions!
Affordable Learning Materials and Open Educational Resources
Defining the Benefits of ALM / OER
OER Definition
OER are Open Educational Resources.
Open educational resources (OER) are free, openly licensed materials that users can retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute at any time.
ALM Definition
ALM are Affordable Learning Materials. For Boise State these are defined as Open Educational Resources, Open Access Content, and Library Licensed Content.
Benefits of OER
Students gain many benefits from the use of OER. Research indicates that OER doesn’t just offer cost savings to students. It also contributes to improved learning outcomes, lifelong learning benefits, and broader access to knowledge. OER adoption significantly improves student grades and reduces failure and withdrawal rates. This positive impact is particularly notable among Pell grant recipients, part-time students, and historically underserved populations. (Source: Colvard, N.B., Watson, C.E., and Park, H.. (2018). The Impact of Open Educational Resources on Various Student Success Metrics. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 30(2), 262-276. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1184998.pdf)
https://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/2986/4209
The Affordable Learning Materials Steering Committee
The Affordable Learning Materials Steering Committee is a group of faculty, staff and students that works to improve access to affordable learning materials, including open education resources, for students at Boise State University. In supporting educators in the use of affordable learning materials and working to improve ease of access to affordable learning materials for students, the Learning Materials Steering Committee advocates for an equitable, inclusive university that centers the needs of students in the creation and selection of course materials.
In 2021/2022, the university formed a task force to develop a plan in response to Policy III. U. In. 2022/2023, this large group was re-formed as a smaller group to move implementation forward. This group, the Learning Materials Steering Committee, involves broad representation from across the university from units that have a role in affordable learning materials and open educational resources. In addition, the committee invited 3 student representatives to provide a student perspective on all aspects of the work of the committee. These students began attending regularly in the Spring ‘23 semester, and will continue to do so in future meetings (with new students invited in as committee members graduate):
Steering Committee Members 2024-2025
- Amy Vecchione, co-chair (Assistant Director of Research and Innovation, eCampus Center)
- Daniel Sanford, co-chair (Director, Center for Teaching & Learning)
- Christina Nava (Educational Development Specialist, Center for Teaching & Learning)
- Mandy Nelson (Registrar, Registrar’s Office)
- Kimber Shaw (Associate Registrar, Registrar’s Office)
- Marlena Hooyboer (Library Specialist, Manager, Albertsons Library)
- Michal Jarolimek (Bronco Shop Director)
- Kalista Barkley (Student)
- Melanie Figueroa Zavala (Student)
- Sarah Saia (Research and Innovation Consultant, eCampus Center)
- Jeff Lingwall (Associate Professor, College of Business and Economics, Faculty Senate)
- Amber Hoye (World Language Resource Center Director, College of Arts and Sciences)
- Leif Nelson (Executive Director, Learning Technology Solutions & Research Computing, Office of Information Technology)
- Jennifer Jayne (Academic Planning Project Coordinator, Senior, Office of the Provost)
Action Plans
Boise State University: Affordable Learning Initiative Action Plan (23-24)
2023 Affordable Learning Initiative Action Plan
Annual Reports
Boise State University: Annual Report, Instructional Materials Access and Affordability (2024)
Boise State University: Annual Report, Instructional Materials Access and Affordability (AY 22/23)
The Affordable Learning Materials Certificate
Participants can earn the ALM Certificate after completing the following four workshops: Introduction to ALM, Introduction to Open Educational Resources, Creating Accessible Open Educational Resources, and Using Pressbooks for Open Educational Resource Development. Additionally, participants can delve deeper into the topic with the More than Textbooks and Customizing OER workshops.
The six workshops, a collaborative effort of Albertsons Library, the Center for Teaching and Learning, the Department of World Languages, eCampus Center, and other partners, are designed to provide comprehensive training and support for instructors. This collective effort will help in addressing equity gaps created by the high cost of learning materials, and in developing and using affordable and open learning materials.