OhioLINK is currently working on affordable learning initiatives in three areas.
Awareness and Advocacy
- OhioLINK joined the Open Education Network (OEN) in 2017 as a consortial member and through our membership, individual OhioLINK institutions have access to join at a discounted rate. Please visit their website for more information about joining.
- Our team of Affordable Learning Ambassadors are trained presenters from OhioLINK member institutions, ready to advise on campus and library affordable learning and OER initiatives across the state. Their collective expertise in finding appropriate resources, copyright, and supporting the modification and creation of Open Education Resources can assist your campus in starting a local affordable learning initiative.
- OhioLINK Affordable Learning maintains a mailing list where members engage in conversations and share information about Affordable Learning initiatives in Ohio. If you are interested in joining this community, please send an email to Anna Bendo.
Discovery and Visibility
- Learn more about the affordable learning initiatives being pursued at Ohio colleges and universities in the Ohio Affordable Learning Campus Initiatives Guide. If you have a campus initiative that you'd like to promote, we'd be happy to add it. Please contact Anna Bendo.
Creation and Collaboration
- The Ohio Open Ed Collaborative (OOEC) is a group of colleges and universities, including OhioLINK and the Ohio Association of Community Colleges (OACC), who worked together to support the development of open educational resources (OER) and other materials to reduce the cost of textbooks for students. You can read more about the OOEC here.
- OhioLINK implemented a branded instance of OER Commons in 2018. The OhioLINK Open Course Content Library hosts Ohio-created OER content and facilitates curation and collaboration on OER resources for Ohio-specific programs.
- OhioLINK’s Inclusive Access Initiative negotiates statewide pricing agreements for inclusive access textbooks with McGraw-Hill Education, Pearson, Cengage, and Sage. The agreements cover all 89 OhioLINK member institutions, public and private. According to the publishers, this is a groundbreaking initiative in its scale and comprehensiveness across virtually all non-profit higher education institutions in a single state.
- In 2022, OhioLINK introduced OER Course Redesign Grants. Modeled after a similar effort at Cleveland State University, this initiative created a pilot program to help faculty learn more about using openly-licensed and affordable course content for high-enrollment courses. Eighty-eight faculty from 35 OhioLINK institutions have participated in three cohorts.
