What are Open Educational Resources, and why are they important?
Open Educational Resources (OERs) are college textbooks that are free for students to use. The rising costs of college textbooks in higher education are an economic challenge that students and families face. Thus, the University System of Georgia (USG) is among the leaders in public higher education institutions to support the creation of OERs that mitigate these economic factors. USG launched Affordable Learning Georgia which offers grants for faculty in Georgia's public higher education institutions to create open textbooks that were either born digital or were transformed from a traditional textbook. USG advocated a highly rigorous peer review system to ensure the quality of open textbooks.
