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Mission & Vision 

Mission

The Provost's OER Working Group aims to develop strategies and intra-university support for faculty members who adopt, adapt, and create OER (Open Educational Resources) to improve course material affordability, connect learning objectives to the resources and create engaging learning experiences for students at UTEP.

Vision

Create an affordable, inclusive, and localized higher education environment through quality OER Resources.

Six Guiding Principles of OER at UTEP

  • Fostering agency in the development of learning goals and objectives beyond commercial instructional materials
  • Curating and creating course materials which allow for the opportunity to critically reflect on learning outcomes and consider the quality of students’ learning
  • Facilitating creative consideration when outlining learning outcomes and how to curate the course materials that works best for the faculty/instructors and the students
  • Embracing the use of non-traditional and unconventional learning resources in higher education, not only to address learning outcomes, but also student accessibility
  • Enhancing students’ learning experiences through the use of dynamic instructional materials
  • Removing socio-economic and political barriers that prevent certain materials from being published in the higher education realm
  • Allowing a space for marginalized and under-represented voices/perspectives to be included in instructional materials in positions of authoritativeness and expertise
  • Allowing end users to dictate the continued enhancement of course materials to more effectively address learning objectives
  • Promoting accessibility and universal design strategies to benefit end users regardless of accommodation need
  • Encouraging collaboration across departments and disciplines to create materials with global and diverse perspectives
  • Recognizing the intersectionality of different identities and providing a platform that celebrates all aspects of end users
  • Increasing class and program retention among Hispanic students by eliminating restrictive costs to quality materials
  • Creating and adding materials to the educational landscape that represent the diverse population at UTEP, celebrating identity, intersectionality, and culture
  • Celebrating the multiculturalism within the Hispanic population, highlighting the different traditions from various cultures in Latin America
  • Including bilingual materials that enhance the teaching and learning experience for end users
  • Contributing to the mission to create a culture of global awareness
  • Foster consistent evaluation and improvement of courses being taught with OER or affordable materials
  • Provide the infrastructure for pre and post- publication quality evaluation of locally created or adapted OER
  • Collaborate/partner with colleges and departments to nominate knowledgeable volunteers to perform quality assessment of course materials germane to their expertise, which can then be acknowledged for tenure and promotion
  • Develop and maintain quality assessment instruments that incorporates feedback from subject experts and end users
  • Instilling a culture of collaboration and creativity by making OER as viable an option as commercially published course materials
  • Educating end users, to include instructors and students, on the benefits and challenges about using OER so they can be advocates for non-traditional course materials in the classroom
  • Providing incentives to adapt and create OER, with the help of support services, at the department and administrative level
  • In accordance with the UT System’s Affordable Learning Initiative, reduce the overall price tag of obtaining a higher education by alleviating restrictive course materials costs
  • Incorporating a culture of care at UTEP to showcase, highlight, and retain the talent of the El Paso and Borderland community
  • Create and provide localized instructional materials to meet the needs of the student population at UTEP
  • Assist the University’s mission to increase access to excellent higher education across various socio-economical status by eliminating restrictive textbook costs

Frequently Asked Questions

“Free” is a broad category which includes any material that does not have cost as a barrier to access the contents of the resource; this includes items with a traditional license, or those with an open license. “Open Access” is a narrower category which includes materials that are published through a traditional model, with a traditional copyright, but where any cost barrier to access the contents of the resource has been removed. 

OER falls under the larger umbrella that is Open Access. An OA resource may be traditionally published, usually includes restrictions on the modification and reuse of its content but is free of cost to access.  OER are materials that have been licensed in a way that—in addition to being free of cost to access-- they can also be modified and redistributed to meet the needs of a particular course or student population without additional permissions. 

There are different Creative Commons Licences that creators can apply to their work, some which allow for the work to be more open than others. OER must follow the 5 Rs in order for it to truly be classified as such: 
  • Retain 
  • Reuse 
  • Revise 
  • Remix 
  • Redistribute 

If you have any questions about a license or if a material is truly OER, please contact the UTEP OER Librarian, Tessy Torres via email at mttorres3@utep.edu or by phone at 915-747-6723. 

OER must follow the 5 Rs in order for it to truly be classified as such: 
  • Retain 
  • Reuse 
  • Revise 
  • Remix 
  • Redistribute 

If there are any restrictions on how the material can be modified, retained, or distributed, this is no longer considered OER.  

If you have any questions about a license or if a material is truly OER, please contact the UTEP OER Librarian, Tessy Torres via email at mttorres3@utep.edu or by phone at 915-747-6723. 

Texas passed HB 1027 in Summer 2021 that requires public colleges and universities in the state to be more transparent about costs associated with course materials. Which books are being used and how much they cost are two required pieces of information that must be made visible when students are registering. The legislation also requires that any sections of classes reporting zero or low-cost materials will be searchable when registering as well. You can learn more about HB 1027 and its’ predecessor, SB 810, on SPARC’s website. 

By reporting which of your classes are using zero and low-cost course materials, you’re helping UTEP stay compliant with Texas legislation. 

Costs of course materials across the University, cost of living in El Paso, dependence on Financial Aid, and other UT System Institutions’ threshold for “low-cost” were carefully considered. It was decided that $40 appropriately reflects a price that is within UTEP’s culture of care while also allowing many high-quality materials to fall into the “low cost” category.  

Library materials are primarily traditionally published and have been purchased using student fees. Although students and other UTEP affiliates do not have to pay additional fees to access Library sources, they have not been free to obtain. Because they have an initial cost as a barrier to obtain, these resources would not be considered Open or OER. 

Librarians can help you find OER sources, both in ScholarWorks@UTEP, the institutional repository, and through other reputable, high-quality repositories. 

The best person to reach out to would be UTEP’s OER Librarian, Tessy Torres. You can reach her via email at mttorres3@utep.edu or via phone at 915-747-6723. 

Affordability and access to quality higher education will always be priorities at UTEP, but we also understand that sometimes the best materials remain commercially published textbooks. We encourage all faculty to evaluate course materials for relevancy to learning objectives and consider if any zero or low-cost materials could be used. The OER Librarian, Tessy Torres, can help in the search for quality, affordable materials. You can reach her at mttorres3@utep.edu or 915-747-6723.

ScholarWorks@UTEP is the institutional repository, and the premier publisher and home of output created by the UTEP community. Open to UTEP faculty, staff, and students, the repository can host almost anything, including but not limited to dissertations, journal articles, books, and other scholarly and creative materials. You can contact Tessy Torres at mttorres3@utep.edu, or Lisa Weber at lweber@utep.edu for more information. 

There are many repositories that house quality OER, which you can find on UTEP’s OER Research Guide. Some favorites are OpenStax for textbooks and MERLOT and OER Commons for ancillary materials. For help navigating the repositories and finding OER, please contact Tessy Torres at mttorres3@utep.edu.  

For help navigating OER repositories and finding quality materials, please contact Tessy Torres at mttorres3@utep.edu or at 915-747-6723. 

Zero-cost materials, including OER, would be available on the first day of class (if not sooner, depending on when the Blackboard course becomes available). Aside from saving the students money in a community that is 70% reliant on financial aid, universal first-day access has proven to decrease DFW rates and increase retention. 

Additionally, OER allows for maximum customization in addressing learning objectives, localization for DEI, and for accessibility and other ADA compliance concerns. 

In addition to OER, Open Access materials can be used, which are also free. Library-owned materials, which are not free but do not have an additional cost for access to UTEP affiliates can be included. Finally, UTEP categorizes Low-Cost at $40 total for course materials – traditionally published materials at or below this threshold can also be used.  

Students will be able to search for courses using zero-cost and low-cost course materials in Goldmine starting Summer 2022.

  • Step 1: Sign into my.utep.edu and click the Goldmine line to look up classes to add, or look up and view courses only. 
  • Step 2: After you have selected a term, scroll down to the “Attribute Type” menu, where you can select “Low-Cost Textbooks” or “Zero-Cost Textbooks” (or both by holding Ctrl then clicking each option). 

low-and-zero-cost-in-goldmine-1.png

  • Step 3: Add additional criteria to the search to narrow to specific course, instructor, time, etc.-- or skip this step to view ALL courses for the term using zero-cost or low-cost course materials. 
  • Step 4: Click “Class Search” to view results

Contact Us

Tessy Torres, MLIS
OER Librarian
915-747-6723
mttorres3@utep.edu 
Schedule an appointment with me at https://utep.libcal.com/appointments/torres


Connect With Us

The University of Texas at El Paso
University Library
1900 Wiggins Way
El Paso, Texas 79968-0582
(915) 747-5672

Email: ask@utep.libanswers.com
(se habla Español)

Text us: (915) 249-3383
(during  Research/Instruction hours)

Call us: (915) 747-5643
or (915) 747-5638