From Exploring First-Generation Student Experiences with OER Textbooks (S. LeMire et al., College and Research Libraries, November 2024):

This case study explores how first-generation students perceive their textbooks, particularly in the areas of cost savings and format. It also supports research indicating that first-generation students are concerned about the cost of textbooks and experience financial challenges, such as food insecurity.

Open educational resources (OER) include readings, media, and other learning objects that are made freely available, or with some rights reserved by their creators. OER are built to be free of legal, financial, and technical barriers. They are characterized by Wiley's "5 R's":

1. Retain - the right to make, own, and control copies of the content (e.g., download, duplicate, store, and manage)
2. Reuse - the right to use the content in a wide range of ways (e.g., in a class, in a study group, on a website, in a video)
3. Revise - the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself (e.g., translate the content into another language)
4. Remix - the right to combine the original or revised content with other open content to create something new (e.g., incorporate the content into a mashup)
5. Redistribute - the right to share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others (e.g., give a copy of the content to a friend)

See: BCOER (2014), BCCampus

It's likely that you're already using OER and just don't know it. Every time you link to an Open Access journal, or use Open Source software, or use a Public Domain image, or try to be mindful of how your students are accessing resources, you're using OER and an Open mindset. 

How to use and adapt OER

OER databases

Openly licensed books, images, and other content

Learning more about open licenses