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Alison Moffat
Manager of Library Services
715.319.7336
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Lori Weigel
Instructional Designer
715.788.7124
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Northwood Tech OER/AER Adoption Statement

Purpose:

Northwood Technical College recognizes that the cost of textbooks often creates significant barriers to student learning, retention, and success. To promote equitable, accessible, and consistent learning experiences for all students, faculty are encouraged to adopt and use open educational resources (OER) and affordable educational resources (AER).

Definitions:

• Open Educational Resources (OER): free, openly-licensed content that can be revised, reused, remixed, redistributed, and retained.
• Affordable Educational Resources (AER): low-cost resources (under $40) that may be protected by copyright and/or behind a paywall (i.e. library resources requiring a login, vendor resources, etc.).

Guidance:

In alignment with the “same course, same textbook” policy, all sections of a given course are required to use the same OER/AER textbook(s) unless otherwise approved through the Textbook Adoption Policy Exception Process. Upon program consensus and dean approval, instructors are encouraged to work collaboratively to review, adopt, adapt, create, and maintain OER/AER textbook(s).

In addition to the OER/AER textbook(s), instructors may choose to adopt additional materials that supplement course content provided students are not impacted by additional costs or other barriers. These supplemental course materials may vary by instructor.

For more information, resources, and support, please visit the iTLC OER website.