Open Educational Resources (OER)/Affordable Educational Resources (AER) Course Marking Mandate: How are OER and AER defined?

OER: A resource that is in the public domain or has been released under an intellectual property license that permits the free use, adaptation, and redistribution of the resource by any person.

• All required curricular resources, including textbooks and other instructional materials such as workbooks, lab manuals, and online homework platforms must be openly licensed.

• Students will have zero costs for course materials.

AER: A single or collection of required resource(s) offered at no or low cost to students at a pre-sales tax cost not to exceed an amount equal to four times the federal minimum wage (i.e., no more than $29 with a $7.25 federal minimum wage).

• The total cost of all required textbooks and other required instructional materials will remain affordable as defined in Act 125.
• Library eBooks that are free to students but not open access are included in this designation.