EUGENE, Ore. — What does $1,520 worth of ramen noodles look like? At Lane Community College, it looks like a mountain, and it represents a powerful message about how students can save money through Open Educational Resources.
To spotlight the cost-saving opportunities available to students who enroll in classes using Open Educational Resources, or OER, LCC librarian Meggie Wright built a mountain of ramen noodles on campus. The display symbolizes the $1,520 the College Board recommends community college students budget annually for books and supplies. For many students, those costs are weighed alongside other basic needs.
"A 2021 study by the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice found that 38 percent of community college students experienced food insecurity in the previous 30 days," Wright said. "I wanted to visualize what else that money could buy and show how free or low-cost course materials can make a real difference."
At Lane, OER refers to educational materials with an open copyright license that are available to students at no cost online. If an OER is not available for a specific subject, instructors can choose textbooks priced at $40 or less. These courses are designated as "low cost."
"Sometimes students are asked to buy a $200 textbook that is barely used in class," Wright said. "We work with instructors to be mindful of material costs while maintaining high-quality instruction."
Lane’s efforts are working. The percentage of courses using OER or low-cost materials has grown from fewer than 15 percent to more than 30 percent in recent years. Wright’s goal is to reach one-third of all classes across the college.
Each summer, LCC offers funding to faculty members who redesign their classes to use OER. Wright supports instructors with research and copyright guidance, while the Academic Technology Center helps with course design. The college also partners with Open Oregon Educational Resources, a statewide initiative focused on textbook affordability.
"Faculty workload and employee turnover can slow progress, but we remain committed to expanding access and making OER sustainable for the long term," Wright said.
Students can look for the tilde (~) symbol in the class schedule to identify OER or low-cost textbook classes. Based on the national average textbook price, Lane estimates that students save more than $1 million per year by taking advantage of these offerings.
For more information and a list of OER and low-cost courses, visit lanecc.edu/oer.
Lane Community College educates over 15,000 students annually at six locations across Lane County and online. Students and alumni from all 50 states and 79 countries create more than an $675 million dollar impact on the local economy, helping to support more than 8,900 local jobs. Lane provides affordable, quality, professional technical and college transfer programs; business development and employee training; academic, language and life skills development; and lifelong personal development and enrichment courses.