When the cost of college hits hard, free course materials matter

LCCC faculty and students embracing open educational resources, or OER, for their cost-saving benefits

Costs associated with college aren’t trivial for Peyton Gire. For the Laramie County Community College sophomore in the Business & Accounting Pathway, the difference can be in the essentials.

“The cost of college overall can add up quickly, especially if you are paying for housing, tuition and other fees,” he said. “Having that extra money helps me afford essentials like food and gas.”

Knowing those little costs add up for students, a growing number LCCC instructors and support teams are exploring Open Educational Resources, or OER. These are free, high-quality learning materials that can replace traditional textbooks, removing one of the most persistent financial barriers students face and helping align instruction with the college’s mission of access and affordability.

Liam Taylor, another sophomore in the Business & Accounting Pathway, said people who have been in college often understand how quickly small costs can add up and how directly affordability impacts their ability to succeed.

“I don’t think people really understand the cost of college,” he said. “It isn’t just tuition; it’s food, rent and even books that start adding up. Even with student aid, students still have to work long hours and take on some debt just to get by. I wish people understood the stress that puts on students who are working and then trying to study long hours.”

LCCC graduates average $12,500 in student loan debt for all types of credentials. That’s remarkably low compared to the national average — total average student loan debt (including private loan debt) may be as high as $42,673 per borrower. And Wyoming generally has a low student debt burden, with only North Dakota reporting a lower average debt and a lower year-over-year change. 

Even with that relatively low cost, financing a college education can still be a hurdle for students looking to improve their lives. Chris Hair, a geoscience instructor in the STEM Pathway, said he’s seen how financial strain affects students, and he knows the feeling firsthand. 

“I think it helps students focus on their studies when they’re less focused on the cost of materials,” he said. “Access to materials right at the beginning of the semester is huge. And I think OER is often personalized to the instructor and their students, so they benefit right away from assignments and activities and textbook material that’s really geared toward them.” 

The overall cost of college has risen sharply for students. Student loan debt is at historic levels, with borrowing levels ever-increasing. More than one-third of students consider dropping out because of financial pressure, and more than half struggle to cover basic monthly bills. Despite a wealth of financial assistance and comparatively low tuition in the state, a 2023 study found that nearly 83% of Wyoming students think higher education is out of their reach because of money.

Against that backdrop, all cost reductions improve a student’s ability to stay enrolled and succeed. In the last three years, it's estimated that LCCC students saved between $462,000 and $746,000 in textbook costs due to the expanded use of OER. 

Chris and his colleagues who are proponents of OER know that implementing their approach on a wider scale comes with challenges. Many instructors are accustomed to teaching from established textbooks, and some disciplines rely on specific works that don’t yet have open equivalents. Building or adapting a course around OER also takes time, collaboration and thoughtful planning. Most faculty members who might be asked to adopt these methods are already stretched thin. And concerns about whether open materials can match the quality of traditional texts surface in some fields. 

But for Chrissy Reynolds, a second-year applied management student who works full-time, it's clear any purported tradeoffs with OER are worth it for the students’ sake. 

“Times have changed, and along with the times, technology has advanced,” she said. “Using OER not only helps students, but it can also help instructors utilize technology to better teach their students.”

Discovering opportunities

OER became personal for LCCC Spanish instructor Ian Caldon when a student told him she couldn’t afford the required text for his Spanish in the Workplace course. Even though she was able to purchase an old edition of the book, the student still didn’t have the access code provided by the more recent edition. Ian said the conversation changed him.

“When a student told me they couldn’t afford the book, that hit me hard,” Ian said. “It made me realize I didn’t want to be part of a system where students couldn’t access the material they needed. I didn’t want to add barriers to someone’s education.”

While Ian said he had some familiarity with OER as a concept, he didn’t understand the scope until he contacted LCCC librarian Maggie Swanger.

 “Once she walked me through the repositories, I realized how much high-quality material was available and how much better it fit what I wanted to teach,” Ian said.

LCCC’s Ludden Library, Maggie said, can play a central role in helping faculty shift to low or no-cost materials for students. Instructors new to OER can find help in identifying open texts, vetted resources and high-quality materials faculty can build into their courses.

 “We can help identify existing OER, or sometimes we can buy an ebook through one of our subscription sources so students can access it for free,” Maggie said. “There have been times when I’ve told an instructor, ‘Let your students know they don’t have to buy this book — the library already purchased it.’”

Not just lower cost — it’s better 

Danielle Adams, a Business & Accounting instructor, said her transition to OER reshaped how she thinks about teaching.

She said the learning environment she experienced as a student — buying expensive textbooks and working in simulated accounting exercises — doesn’t match the reality her students live in today. 

Building accounting assignments directly in Excel that build in complexity until students are solving full accounting scenarios, Danielle said her students benefit not only from the savings but from learning in the actual tools they’ll encounter in the workplace rather than in a simulated environment.

Chris said he was hesitant when STEM Pathway Coordinator Trent Morrell first encouraged him to explore OER. For Trent, removing barriers so students can begin, stay enrolled and complete their programs was a critical goal. 

 “I have always felt that textbooks and other required materials were way too expensive for students, particularly here at LCCC where we provide an otherwise affordable tuition and experience,” Trent said. “When I first heard about OER options, I jumped at the idea of offering this alternative to my students in all of the geoscience classes I was teaching at the time.  It just made sense.”

Once Chris began adopting OER in his courses, he saw how effectively it could be shaped to meet the needs of his students. Chris and Danielle both said instructors often feel more invested in their teaching when they build the content themselves, gaining a deeper understanding of the material and a stronger connection to how students learn it.

“The OER materials aren’t always a perfect fit for your class, but that’s part of what makes it valuable,” Chris said. “It allows me to add, improve and shape the material to fit my own students. That openness matters to me. With a large publisher textbook, people tend to rely on it completely. With OER, there’s more flexibility and, in my opinion, more ownership in the way we teach.”

Because Danielle’s material was developed through her own expertise and research, she said she feels more engaged with helping students learn what they need to know.

“In building all of this, I learned the material far more deeply, and that made me a better teacher,” she said. “I understood the assignments because I created them myself. I think instructors teach with more passion when they build their own materials. I teach my best when I truly understand my work.”

Don’t eat the elephant at once 

Some programs at LCCC have ambitious OER goals. The bachelor's program in Applied Management in the Business & Accounting Pathway, for example, is expected to feature LCCC’s first Z-Degree (meaning every course in the program uses free materials) in Fall 2026, said Jeff Shmidl, Business and Finance Program director.

But instructors shouldn’t feel overwhelmed when considering integrating OER in their courses, Ian said.

“I used to think OER required a full course redesign or a sabbatical,” Ian said. “It doesn’t. Start small. Build it over a few semesters. You can make progress without burning yourself out.” 

Chris and Danielle agreed that faculty don’t need to reinvent an entire course to begin using OER. Some classes rely heavily on the structure of a textbook, so a full transition can feel daunting. Instead, Chris said he encourages instructors to start with a single assignment or module, being a manageable step that builds confidence and momentum without requiring a complete redesign upfront.

“Creating one assignment or activity can take a weekend, and it’s a solid way to start,” he said. “I like to use the phrase ‘shrink the change.’ You don’t have to redesign everything at once. You can begin with smaller activities or assignments that are more focused.”

No tradeoffs in quality 

Concerns about the quality of open materials still come up, but Maggie said those worries rarely align with the evidence. Students in OER-based courses overwhelmingly report that the materials are just as good or better than courses with a traditional textbook. While there are areas of education where OER hasn’t developed or won’t apply in the same way, Maggie said access to quality material in general education subjects has improved dramatically in recent years, giving faculty multiple strong options to choose from.

“There are a lot of studies showing that student outcomes in OER courses are at least equal to those in traditional textbook courses,” she said. “Students often say the materials are just as good, if not better, than publisher resources, and the quality has been improving by leaps and bounds.”

The quality of the classes Peyton took where OER was offered matched or exceeded those with required textbooks, he said, leaving him feeling prepared to succeed in college. 

“I feel that I had equal or even better quality of education in these classes because I had access to the textbook if I needed it,” Peyton said. “It was easier to access the [OER] textbook as well. In some classes that I did have to pay for a traditional textbook, I found that we did not use it as much or only parts of it, which makes the cost seem unnecessary.”

Peyton said he appreciates the instructors who take the time to build stronger, more accessible courses, because those efforts can directly affect his ability to advance in a productive, life-fulfilling career. He said the openness to offer free materials also says something about the instructors’ authenticity and desire to make a difference.

“Offering free materials doesn’t take away from the quality of education; I think it makes it more accessible to students,” Peyton said. “It can show that instructors care about their students and understand the challenges we face.”

For Liam, paying for textbooks in college hasn’t improved his education; he said it just made it harder to keep up with financial pressure. Even a little relief from that pressure, he said, can make a difference in making his way to a life-changing degree.