Through a pilot program administered by Colby Libraries with funding from the Office of the Provost, four faculty-led projects were awarded grants to create or adopt open educational resources (OER) for use in their courses. OER are “teaching, learning, and research resources that are free of cost and access barriers” (SPARC). The pilot program was developed in response to student affordability concerns and seeks to be a model for future affordability initiatives within the Libraries and across campus.

Projects were completed for use in either the Fall 2025 or Spring 2026 semester. Faculty grantees were required to replace an existing commercial textbook with OER or library-subscribed content, resulting in zero course material costs to students. In a single semester, these pilot OER projects reached an estimated 262 Colby students for a maximum potential course materials savings of $48,412.06.

As these courses are taught again in future semesters, we anticipate that potential cost savings to students will continue. Learn additional details about pilot OER grant projects below:

OER Creation Grant (Fall 2025)

Benjamin Scharadin, Assistant Professor of Economics

• For EC225 Research Methods and Statistics for Economics, this creation project replaced the previously required commercial textbook (print MSRP $323.95) with an open textbook primarily adapted from Webb’s Mostly Harmless Statistics. The grant also supported the creation of updated lab materials for use with Stata.

OER Creation Grant (Fall 2025)

Scott Taylor, Professor of Mathematics with Fernando Gouvea, Carter Professor of Mathematics

• For MA130 Single-Variable Calculus Revisited, this creation project replaced the previously required commercial textbook (print MSRP $142.95) with the openly licensed Callahan’s Calculus In Context and the library-subscribed Körner’s Calculus for the Ambitious. The grant also supported the creation of updated problem sets.

OER Adoption Grant (Fall 2025)

Dave Angelini, Associate Professor of Biology

• For BI279 Genetics, this adoption project replaced the previously required commercial textbook (print MSRP $159.99) with content from a combination of open texts, including Singh’s Introduction to Genetics, Fowler’s Concepts of Biology, Suza & Lee’s Genetics, Agriculture, and Biotechnology, and Simons’ Chromosomes, Genes, and Traits: An Introduction to Genetics (Revised Edition).

OER Adoption Grant (Spring 2026)

Sandra Bernal Heredia, Assistant Professor of Spanish

• For SP131H Spanish for Heritage Speakers, this adoption project replaced the previously required commercial textbook (print MSRP $156.00) with freely accessible and open resources from a variety of sources, including the Center for OER and Language Learning (COERLL).

For more information about how Colby Libraries engages with open initiatives, feel free to check out our Open Education guide.