UNM and Open Educational Resources
UNM’s Open Educational Resource (OER) initiative seeks to provide faculty members with the support they need to adopt low and no-cost textbook and class material solutions for their courses when it aligns with their instructional objectives and academic freedom. We work closely with Central New Mexico Community College and Santa Fe Community College in building the NMOER Consortium thanks to funding from U.S. Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education Open Textbooks Pilot Program Grant.
In 2024–2025, UNM, SFCC, and CNM together saved students a total of $1,027,785.29, and we’re projected to save them even more each year.
Department of Education Grant Awarded to UNM
The University of New Mexico (UNM) has been selected as one of the recipients of the federal Open Textbook Grant for nearly $2.125 million dollars, recognizing its commitment to advancing education through Open Educational Resources (OER). With this grant funding, UNM will create the New Mexico Open Educational Resources (NMOER) Consortium to help faculty across the state to adopt open access materials.
About the grant, New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich, who has helped to secure funding to support this federal program through his role on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said, “I am pleased to now welcome this major investment to help UNM provide more cost-effective course materials to more students.”
The NMOER Consortium will allocate funding and resources to faculty at the University of New Mexico, Central New Mexico Community College (CNM), and Santa Fe Community College (SFCC). Read more in UNM's Newsroom.
New Mexico OER Consortium Book Platform
In the summer of 2024, the New Mexico OER (NMOER) Consortium published its web presence using the platform Pressbooks. The NM OER Consortium website currently has a Faculty OER Guide to help with the creation of OER and five books for various classes provided at UNM and CNMCC.
Open Textbook Pilot Program
4th Annual Open Textbook Program (OTP)
Apply Now!During 2025, the OER initiative at UNM saved students $586,554 and supported the faculty as they integrated OER into their courses. This fall, the University Libraries would like the positive impacts to continue. The University of New Mexico Open Textbook Pilot Program is holding its annual call for proposals for OER adoption and adaptation grants. This program is designed to support faculty, instructors, and graduate students with the adoption, adaptation, and creation of OER materials into their courses to increase student success.
OER work, particularly OER authorship and development, can require extra effort on the part of instructors. Register for this session to receive information about the program:
- Find out more about the application process;
- Learn about the evaluation process for applications;
- Discover OER research methods and repositories;
- Ask questions of the OER Librarian.
Information session dates:
- Wednesday, August 26th, 2026 @ 1 p.m.
- Thursday, September 10th, 2026 @ 1 p.m.
- Wednesday, September 23rd, 2026 @ 11 a.m.
The deadline to submit applications for the second annual Open Textbook Pilot Program is October 1st, 2026. These proposals will be evaluated by a subcommittee of the OER Working Group. Work in this program should begin in the spring of 2027.
The following library guide for the grant program contains more details and the link to fill out an application: goto.unm.edu/oerotp
The 2025 Open Textbook Pilot Program is happy to announce that we were able to fund all 7 proposals that were accepted in November 2025.
- Architectual Production Manual (ARCH 2315/1115/1125/2112/2117/2325) by Lauren McQuistion
- Principles of Biology: Organisms to Ecosystems (BIO 2102) by Moses Michelsohn & Lisa Barrow
- Principles of Biology: Introductory Laboratory (BIOL 2103L) by Moses Michelsohn & Holly Hutchison
- Introduction to Chemistry Lecture and Laboratory for Non-Majors (CHEM 1120C) by Hasani G. Jayasinghe at UNM GALLUP
- Applications of Calculus (MATH 1430) by Paul T. Allen at UNM TAOS
- Calculus-Based Physics I (PHYS 1310) by Jose Sanchez
- Program Evaluation (OILS 544) by Amir Hedayati Mehdiabadi
Saving Students Money
The estimated amount of money students spend on textbooks and supplies in the United States is over 14 billion dollars annually, and Bureau of Labor Statistics data indicates that these costs have risen by 4 times the rate of inflation over the last decade. Populations of students who cannot afford to buy or rent textbooks choose not to buy them at all, negatively impacting their education.
The following video explains the equitable and enduring effects of Open Educational Resources.
Legislative initiatives in many other states have shown significant return on investment in both dollar terms and student achievement.
For faculty ready to begin exploring, this linked OER Library Guide is a good starting point. From there, you can contact CULLS' OER Librarian for more details.
OER Initiative Highlighted on University Showcase
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
University Showcase hosted by KUNM News Director Megan Kamerick recently featured OER Librarian Jennifer Jordan to discuss OER how open educational resources can benefit students by slashing the costs of textbooks. Click the image above to listen to the archived broadcast. That also features UNM professors and OER Champions Therese Baca-Radler, Dave Dixon, Cash Clifton, and Zachary Sharp.
Explore OER Developments
Interested in keeping up with the latest developments in OER at UNM? Click the button at the bottom of this page to join the OER Initiative's mailing list. We will send information about upcoming OER-related opportunities, workshops, and events.
Implement NMOER Textbooks
Planning to use an NMOER textbook? Let us know which one! Fill out this form.
