10/14/2025
By Julie Nash

The Open Educational Resources (OER) Task Force in collaboration with the Office of the Provost are continuing efforts to mark courses with Open Educational Resources (OER), no-cost, or low-cost materials in the Student Information System (SIS) for winter and spring 2026. Please help by completing a short survey by October 17 or placing your textbook orders by November 2 (details below). And please read on - our students have a lot to say about textbook costs.

Please complete the following:

  • Complete the survey: If your course uses OER, free, or low-cost materials (under $50), please fill out this quick survey by October 17. If your required materials cost more than $50, please submit your textbook order. This survey has been extended!
  • Submit your textbook order: If you plan to use course materials, please submit your order to the bookstore by November 2. This helps students get the best prices and ensures enough copies are available on day 1 of the semester. Textbook adoptions have been extended for one month!

Course Attributes in SIS
Based on your survey response, your course will be tagged with one of the following:

  • NOCOST: All required materials are free (OER, library resources, or no required materials).
  • LOWCOST: All required materials are $50 or less (based on bookstore pricing, not third-party sites).

If you're unsure about pricing, email your ISBN to Dante_Hebert@uml.edu for help.

Students will be able to filter for NOCOST and LOWCOST courses during spring registration. This initiative supports transparency and affordability, and it’s a priority for our students. While it’s part of a statewide mandate from the MA Department of Higher Ed, it’s also strongly backed by our Student Government Association and MASSPIRG, who’ve led the charge through events like the OERscars and faculty senate presentations.

What Students Told Us
Thanks to the office of DAIR for leading the spring 2025 student survey on textbook affordability. Over 1,700 students responded. Here’s what stood out:

Worth Celebrating:

  • 79% had at least one course with no material costs
  • 50% had 1–2 classes with no-cost materials
  • 57% looked for cost info before enrolling
  • 70% found the info easy to locate

Room to Improve:

  • 26% said materials were unaffordable
  • 55% said they had at least one course with unreasonably high costs
  • 23% decided not to enroll in a course due to material costs
  • 11% dropped or withdrew because they couldn’t afford the materials

One of the most frequent open-ended comments? Praise for instructors who choose low or no-cost materials.
Thanks in advance for supporting this effort—it directly impacts student success at UMass Lowell.

Take the OER Course Materials survey (login with your UML credentials). It takes about five minutes.

Questions? Email us at OER@uml.edu.