In 2017, the Texas Legislature passed Texas Senate Bill 810.
SB 810 (2017) requires that institutions of higher education compile a course schedule indicating whether the textbook is an open educational resource. Institutions shall make reasonable efforts to disseminate information to students, including the availability of courses and sections of courses that require or recommend only open educational resources. This bill also established the open educational resources grant program to encourage faculty to adopt and develop courses that use only open educational resources.
At UT Tyler, we have started this process by marking courses in the course registration system that use no-cost or low-cost ($50 or less) course materials.
To find courses that offer no-cost or low-cost materials, please go to the UT Tyler class search at my.uttyler.edu.
Select Class Search. From there, you can type in "no cost" or "low cost" in the search to search all course sections offering affordable options.
Alternatively, you can search for specific course abbreviations (ENGL, MUSI, NURS) and in the left-hand limiter pane, scroll down to find "Class Attribute" and select No Cost or Low Cost Educational Materials.
Courses marked with an attribute of no-cost or low-cost appear as follows in the course registration system:
For the purposes of this reporting, course materials include required (not merely recommended) textbooks, access codes, courseware, and software. Course materials do not include reusable items such as lab coats, goggles, scantron sheets, calculators, and art supplies.
Courses can be marked by contacting your administrative assistant, or other UT Tyler employee, who enters course attributes into the course registration system. You can also contact Terra Gullings at tgullings@uttyler.edu.
Base your markings on the minimum cost required to complete the course. For example, if you require material that has a cost of $0 for the online version and $20 for a print version, and students are free to select either option, you may apply the No-Cost marking.
Since faculty and departments cannot predict which accessibility needs may be required for students in their courses each semester, they can assign course markings without consideration of these differentiated costs. Students with accessibility needs should be encouraged to contact the UT Tyler Office of Student Accessibility and Resources (SAR) office, which includes information about text-to-speech services, among other accommodations.
Only add a course marking after all required materials costs (see definition above) are known, and consider what every student needs to purchase, not just what one student or a subset might need to purchase. Avoid adding course markings unless you know they are accurate for all students enrolled. We would rather under report savings than publish incorrect information.