KINGMAN – Mojave Community College faculty and staff aim to help students save money on college by eliminating the high cost of textbooks and course materials. They do this by finding or creating an open educational resource commonly referred to in the higher education community as her OER.

According to the MCC news release, OER is free or low-cost learning material and MCC has dozens of courses with instructors utilizing OER materials across all four campuses.

Life Sciences Instructor Eric Osborn was recently recognized as an OER Hero by a higher education group called Open Textbooks for Rural Arizona.

Osborn has been building and publishing OER for the last five years. He recently worked with MCC Lab Technician Angel Soto to create a free chemistry lab manual that replaced the $200 traditional manual he needed for his class.

“Many students breathed a sigh of relief when we explained that all course materials were now free,” Osborne said. “For some students, buying a $300 textbook is equivalent to a month’s worth of groceries, a month’s bills, or a month’s gas to get to work or school, or It’s the crèche that a child needs.”

Open Textbooks for Rural Arizona is made up of eight colleges committed to reducing costs for students. They identify the most enrolled courses with the most expensive study materials and work to eliminate or reduce costs for students.

“MCC Life Sciences has been using the free/low-cost model for years,” says Osborn. “In microbiology, textbooks and lab manuals cost him $400 to him $500, but OER replacements have made these materials available to students for free.”

During the 2017-18 school year, MCC saved students over $500,000 in textbook costs. From 2014 to 2018, the university saved her over $1 million in student textbook costs thanks to her OER materials.

“MCC remains committed to helping students save as much money as possible when it comes to textbooks and course materials,” said the news release.