Making Education Affordable for Students: A Case Study of Implementation and Faculty Usage of an Open Educational Resources Program

The high cost of course materials negatively affects students' academic progress. This case study reviews and analyzes the implementation and usage of a library-led Open Educational Resources (OER) program. The university library at Cal State LA established a new Scholarly Communication Open Resources eLearning (SCORE) pilot program in the Fall of 2021, which offers a $500 stipend to faculty for creating or redesigning a zero-cost course. This study examined faculty usage of the SCORE program from various colleges and academic disciplines. The study findings demonstrate that SCORE is both popular and successful. We hope that other libraries have the potential to replicate similar initiatives.