High textbook costs continue to prove a barrier to college for some students, with some studies showing that many students skip textbook purchases even if they worry it’ll harm their grades because of the price tag. These days low-cost add-ons to freely available, openly licensed 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 OER-based courseware, announced it received a $5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
