SGA Open Educator Award

In partnership with the TTU Libraries, the Student Government Association (SGA) at Texas Tech University has established annual awards for faculty who go above and beyond to promote affordability and student success by adopting and/or creating open educational materials in their classrooms. This award seeks to recognize faculty who work to promote or contribute to a culture of utilizing free accessible academic resources to help lower the cost of higher education. These awards will be administered by a committee within SGA. Committee membership will include student members of SGA as well as the Open Educational Resources Librarian.

The Open Educator Award is a teaching award that is given to faculty members who demonstrate exemplary usage of open access materials in their own classrooms. Examples of this include but are not limited to utilizing free textbooks, providing free electronic notes or textbook alternatives, using/incorporating free educational resources/materials into the course curriculum, etc.

A maximum of three faculty members can receive the award each year. Faculty members at all ranks, including but not limited to lecturers, instructors, and professors, are eligible. 

When determining awards, care will be taken to recognize faculty members holding diverse ranks, including (1) full or associate; (2) tenure-track or assistant; (3) and non-tenure-track or lecturer-type faculty members. This list of titles is by no means exclusive or binding.

Students, here is the nomination form.

TLPDC Annual Workshop Series 

Every year, the TTU Libraries OER Office and the Teaching, Learning, and Professional Development Center (TLPDC) co-hosts OER related workshops throughout the year. These workshops are open to all TTU faculty and staff. To learn about presentations/workshops that are currently being offered, please visit the TLPDC events webpage. 

Open Education Week Virtual Conference & All Things Open Week

In 2022 and 2023, the TTU Libraries created and hosted an Open Education Week Virtual Conference. This conference was free to attend and included presenters from TTU and other institutions that make up the Texas Tech University System. Please visit the TTU Libraries YouTube channel to view the recordings from this conference. 

In 2024, the TTU Libraries OER Office decided to partner with Kennesaw State University to co-host the All Things Open Week conference in place of the Open Education Week Virtual Conference. The All Things Open Week conference brought in presenters from TTU, KSU, and others from around the world. Please visit the Kennesaw State University All Things Open webpage to view the recordings from this conference.

OER Course Markings

At TTU, faculty are required to provide course material adoptions to the bookstore. These adoption types can be traditional publications, OER, or simply stating “no materials required.” This provides transparency for students and lets them know what materials they need for class and how much those materials may cost. 

For courses at TTU that are only using OER, open access, or library licensed material, we ask that that faculty mark in Follett Discover that they are using “OER.” When students go to search for courses, courses that faculty marked as “OER” will actually be listed as “Low to No Cost Textbooks.” 

Texas Senate Bill 810

This bill, passed in 2018, states that all public institutions of higher education in the state of Texas will put together a list of required course materials, including OER, in a course schedule every semester and post that list within the institutions website. Here at Texas Tech, course schedules are in RaiderLink. This bill also states that institution's should provide a way for students to search for classes using OER within the course schedule.

You can read the exact wording of the entirety of TX SB 810 at this link.

The TTU Libraries OER Office works with the Raider Depot Follett Bookstore, the TTU Registrar, and the TTU Bookstore Advisory Committee to oversee the implementation of OER Course Markings each semester at TTU. The OER Office also maintains all of the data for course sections that have implemented OER and other low to no cost options. Those affiliated with TTU can view our OER Data Dashboard here.