free plus permissions

We tend to enjoy the cost-saving magic of OER. Indeed, this week's reading illustrates once again the power of OER to save costs. Phil Hill mentioned in his article, "more than 2.2 million students at 48% of colleges in the US and 1,150 outside the US are using OpenStax free textbooks, saving an estimated $177 million". Similarly, Mo Nyamweya's article also mentions the cost-saving power of OER, "on average, students save $116.94 per course when OER is adopted in place of traditional textbooks". After looking at the data, it's hard to resist the appeal of OER. The achievement of OER in saving students' costs is really great!

In addition to the cost savings, I found that another point about OER this week is interesting. Phil Hill mentioned, "The success of open textbooks like OpenStax have ignited competition in the textbook market, and textbook prices are actually falling for the first time in 50 years". What an interesting phenomenon that OER not only helps students save on costs but also lowers the price of traditional textbooks! It's not hard to see how OER is reducing textbook costs in different ways.

It all looks so good! However, back to my first sentence: We tend to enjoy the cost-saving magic of OER. Is OER just saving students' costs? The answer is clearly no! Cost-saving is only one of the characteristics of OER, and it is also only one of the benefits of OER. OER can do a lot more! David mentioned such a passage in his article, "I haven't spent the last 19 years of my life fighting to create cheaper textbooks. I'm trying to lay the foundation for a fundamental shift – a real revolution – in teaching and learning. I'm fully aware I'm playing a very long game, and I expect to play it another 20 years with little hope of seeing the vision completely fulfilled. However, it is a game worth playing and a vision worth fighting for. And neither "cheaper" nor "free" can get us there. Only "free plus permissions" can". Yes! While we enjoy the benefits brought by OER in saving costs, we should not forget the benefits of more open learning and 5R activities brought by OER to us. 

In closing, I want to say something to David and his team: "you are doing a great and long thing, but I believe you got this!"