Today’s post was written by Karna Younger, open educational resources librarian.
LMU faculty: Do your students skip out on your assigned reading because the textbook is too expensive? Do you want to save your students money but can’t find the right replacement textbook? Do you long to have a bespoke textbook for your course? You are not alone!
Many faculty in your shoes turn to open educational resources (OER) because OER are free to use and openly licensed, allowing you to customize content for your courses. You may only need to update a few links or references; you could combine two or more OER together; or you could weave a wholly new OER to better align with your course goals.
If the thought of creating your own textbook is overwhelming, don’t worry. Whether lightly customizing or creating course materials from scratch, our “Open Voices, Just Choices: OER for Social Justice Faculty Handbook” and the library’s Open and Affordable Textbook Initiative (OATI) microgrant program can guide you through the process.
How-To Guidance
Theresa Huff and I developed and tested “Open Voice, Just Choices” with 39 faculty across disciplines at LMU, University of San Francisco, Santa Clara University, and Saint Mary’s College of California as part of the library’s three-year OER for Social Justice initiative. The handbook we developed is a practical guide for faculty creating or remixing OER, such as open textbooks.
Covering every stage of the OER lifecycle—from planning and copyright to accessibility, inclusive design, Pressbooks, H5P, open pedagogy, publishing, and sustainability—the handbook combines evidence-based practices with practical tools, templates, and examples to help educators create engaging, student-centered learning experiences. In the handbook, we break down how LMU faculty have successfully created and implemented OER into their teaching.
Partnering with Students
“Open Voices, Just Choices” is rooted in social justice-aligned open educational practices. These practices foster diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism by amplifying the voices of historically marginalized individuals and groups through open pedagogy, or the inclusion of student learning and work in an OER. We detail how you can partner with students to create authentic learning experiences that encourage learners to self-represent their application of the course topics to their lived experiences while respecting their educational, intellectual property, and privacy rights.
Jessica and Mischa Livingstone’s “No-Nonsense Filmmaking” is a stellar example of open pedagogy. In their whimsical OER, the two authors paired with their student filmmakers to enliven typically dry technical material with examples of student films. Profiled student auteurs reflect on how they translated the skills learned in PROD 100 into their own short films, which are embedded in the textbook for immediate consumption. The student sketches were a consistent hit among anonymously surveyed students because their voices made the OER more inclusive. As one respondent summed it up, “They had people from all different backgrounds speaking and sharing their own perspectives in terms of that lesson’s topic, which I enjoyed and found to be inclusive!”
Accessibility and Interactivity
In “Open Voices, Just Choices,” we also show you how to technically build an inclusive OER that is fully accessible and interactive. Such moves are demonstrated through the work of LMU’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry team, Nicole Bouvier-Brown, Emily Jarvis, J. Ryan Hunt, and Saori Shiraki. In “General Chemistry 3e: OER for Inclusive Learning,” Saori tackled the task of making countless equations accessible so that students using assistive technologies can access essential elements of the lesson. In the handbook, we show you how Saori skipped the screenshots and rendered MathML and LaTEX equations with MathJax to create accessible formulas in LMU’s online publishing platform, Pressbooks.
Additionally, we teach you how to embed interactivities throughout your OER to support students in immediately practicing key concepts. This includes a look book of the different typ H5P, which enable you to present graphical information, assess student learning, and promote deep reflection with essays and more. Ryan, for instance, interlaced Saori’s equations with multiple choice questions to test student knowledge and provide immediate feedback. You can even automatically grade H5P with Brightspace.
Improve Learn, Save Students Cash
If you want to try an open textbook on for size or even construct your own made-to-measure treasure, check out our Open and Affordable Textbook Initiative (OATI). We are currently accepting applications to review existing OER this month (November 2026). Faculty can receive $300 if they review an OER by Mon., Nov. 16. If you would like to use the OER in a course, then we will continue to support that work with an additional $700 and a community of practice.
Applicants should register for and attend our “How to Identify, Locate, or Review OER” workshop on Fri., November 6 at 12-1 pm or can reach out to Karna Younger. We will have additional OATI opportunities in the spring as well.
Funded by the Department of Education, OER for Social Justice resulted in 11 OER being implemented at the four partner institutions, LMU, SCU, SMCC, and USF. The program saved 723 LMU students $84,547.62 in fall 2025 and spring 2026. All sections of General Chemistry I and II are using the inclusive “General Chemistry 3e,” saving nearly 400 students over $44,000 last year. Likewise, over 250 School of Film and Television students pocketed over $30,000 in textbook savings when their instructors used “No-Nonsense Filmmaking.” Explore all 11 OER authored by OERFSJ faculty and our handbook.
Questions? Contact Karna Younger at karna.younger@lmu.edu.
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