University of Nebraska ITS continues to support the increased adoption and utilization of reduced-cost digital course materials through Open Educational Resources (OER) and Inclusive First-Day Access programs on the Kearney, Lincoln and Omaha campuses. Collaborating closely with key partners like campus libraries, bookstores, and Academic Affairs divisions, NU ITS brings the value of scale to these digital course materials efforts through seamless integration with the learning management system, training and support for faculty, and ensuring that our learning spaces are right-sized with plenty of wireless access points for students to connect with more than one device.
Since these efforts started at the University of Nebraska several years ago, NU ITS is now celebrating a new milestone with the Spring 2021 semester: saving students over $6M compared to the cost of traditional course materials.
NU ITS is currently working with the Student Regents, Student Governments, and Faculty Senates at UNK, UNL and UNO to pursue the addition of course marking via a course attribute. The new course attribute in MyBlue, MyRed, and Mavlink would add transparency to the course registration process so that students and their families could determine which NU courses are using reduced-cost digital course materials at the time of registration rather than as a course launches and make informed registration decisions.
This spring, NU ITS is also launching a multi-campus, longitudinal research study investigating the impact of digital course material adoption and utilization at the University of Nebraska. This research study will be led by Principal Investigator Dr. Jaci Lindburg, Assistant Vice President for IT Strategy and Learning Technologies Liaison with NU ITS. This research is closely coupled with the external funding NU ITS received from receiving a and matching funds provided the NU Provost’s Office back in October 2020.