These days low-cost alternatives known as Open Educational Resources, or OER, are getting a boost as a potential solution. Last week, for example, Lumen Learning, a company that sells low-cost OER textbooks and courseware, announced it received a $5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant will help Lumen bring together the company’s three separate platforms for humanities, professional development and online homework management, executives from the company say. Officials plan to make an OER Statistics 101 course available by 2023.
