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Affordable Learning Upstate: Affordable and Open Educational Resources

Attend a Workshop

USC Upstate and PASCAL offer faculty workshops on OER and affordable learning each semester. Watch this space to find current offerings!

Revise a Course Using OER and Affordable Resources

  • Replace your conventional textbook with an open textbook.
  • Create a collection of readings, videos, tutorials and other materials to replace or supplement a textbook.
  • Customize course materials to reflect the way you teach and to better serve your students' needs.
  • Revise course assignments to incorporate transformative, inclusive, and open pedagogy.
  • Create your own open textbook or other OER!

Whether your course revision is relatively simple or complex, Upstate's librarians and instructional designers are ready to assist you through the process! Simply fill out the Affordable Learning/OER Interest Form and begin with the Getting Started with OER short course, and we will contact you!

Library Resources for Affordable Learning:

Online Journals - The library subscribes to over 300 databases which, in turn, provide access to millions of articles. Instructors may locate an article and then provide the persistent link for that article's database record to their students. Providing the persistent link to the database record rather than a PDF of the article itself ensures that copyright laws are upheld and lessens the likelihood of errors within Blackboard. 

Ebooks - The library has access to thousands of ebooks. Instructors may use the Library Search to find ebooks in their subject area and then provide a persistent link to that ebook for their students. Some ebooks have a limit on the number of users allowed, so instructors should inquire with a librarian before assigning the ebook in a way that might generate multliple simultaneous users.

Streaming Audio & Video - The library also subscribes to databases which provide access to streaming audio and video and images (many of which can be found in Multimedia Resources guide.). It is possible to embed some of these into Blackboard. Ask a librarian if you need help finding access to a particular video.

Course Reserves - Personal copies of a textbook or other class materials as well as library materials may be put on course reserve. According to the instructor's choice, reserve materials will be available to students either as library use only or for 1-, 3-, or 7-day checkout. The library can also assist with electronic reserves. See the Course Reserves page for more details.