When $150 Becomes a Barrier: Why Open Educational Resources Matter
It’s back-to-school season, and my son called the other day with a complaint familiar to parents everywhere: “Dad, one of my textbooks is $150.”
I gave him the advice I give all students: check with the instructor to confirm the book will actually be used. Too often, assigned texts sit unopened while students are left with lighter wallets.
The instructor’s response to him? “You can afford tuition, so you can afford a $150 book.”
Oh, there are so many things wrong with that statement. Tuition consumes most of the budget families have for education. Many students attend on scholarships or financial aid because they cannot afford the full cost of college or the textbooks. For others, a few hundred dollars more might mean cutting corners on food, housing, or other essentials. To dismiss these realities is not just shortsighted, it’s a failure of empathy.
As instructors, we can do better.
From Tradition to Transformation
For decades, buying the textbook was a rite of passage. Students lined up at the bookstore, clutching booklists and receipts, expecting hundreds of dollars in extra costs each term. To save money, they scoured the used-book shelves: some looking for the cleanest, most lightly used copies, others hoping to gain an edge from highlighted passages and margin notes. Of course, there’s no guarantee that the student who made those notes earned an “A”—yet the practice became a familiar ritual of academic life.
The Open Educational Resources (OER) movement emerged in response to these pressures. OER are teaching and learning materials—textbooks, course modules, videos, and more—freely available for anyone to use, adapt, and share. They’re not just about reducing costs; they represent a shift toward equity and accessibility in higher education.
And adoption is growing. Take the OpenStax “Introduction to Communication” textbook, now used by thousands of students across the U.S. This resource, available entirely free online, covers the same foundational material as its $100+ commercial counterparts. Instructors can customize chapters, integrate them into their LMS, and give students day-one access without financial barriers. That is the power of OER: quality content at no cost, tailored for today’s classrooms.
The University Push
Universities across the country are working to lower course material costs. At the University of Florida, we launched the Textbook Affordability initiative to support faculty in identifying cost-saving alternatives. The numbers make the case: in the 2022–23 academic year, the estimated cost of books and supplies for UF undergraduates was $1,260.
When we, as instructors, select a textbook, we are not making an isolated decision. Our students are enrolled in five or six courses at once. Each choice we make compounds the financial strain.
A Call to Action
Regardless of whether your institution has a formal affordability initiative, the responsibility starts with us. Faculty can:
Review required materials to confirm they are essential.
Seek out OER or lower-cost alternatives.
Make course content accessible and reasonably priced.
We cannot continue to be like my son’s instructor, dismissing $150 as “just the cost of college.” For many students, it might be the difference between staying enrolled and stepping away.
As higher education professionals, our mission is not just to teach but to remove barriers to learning. Let’s treat course materials as part of that mission.
This article originally appeared in the Kropp on Campus LinkedIn Newsletter on September 2, 2025.