Newsroom

Raritan Valley Community College continues to help students reduce their educational costs by providing free instructional materials in a growing number of classes. Since 2018, the use of free Open Educational Resources (OER) has saved RVCC students $6,162,077.07.

OER are free online resources that can be downloaded, edited, and shared. In addition to the cost savings, students benefit by using course materials that can easily be customized by their professors.

The College currently offers 70 distinct courses for which students can register to take the class with no-textbook costs. The number of sections that have no-textbook cost has increased each semester, as faculty adopt the OER that their colleagues have developed for those courses. When students register for classes, they can see if a course has a zero-textbook cost or a low-textbook cost of less than $45. They also can search for “no-cost” and “low-cost” courses as they are building their schedule.

Many RVCC faculty members are doing their part to assist students by embracing the use of OER in their classrooms. The College’s faculty have published five OER textbooks that can be adopted by others, with four more  in development. Two of those are for English Composition I and English Composition II classes, which will offer savings for all RVCC students who are required to take these courses for their major. The English Department has been making significant revisions and updates to its English Composition courses, which include a department-wide decision to use OER beginning in fall 2026.

“Those of us that worked on the English Composition I and II Pressbooks were excited that the platform allowed us to use and remix existing content and write and create our own. We now have customized digital textbooks for both courses that align with our course outcomes and communicate our pedagogical priorities,” says Jessica Darkenwald-DeCola, Associate Professor of English. “We are in the process of piloting the English Composition I book this fall, and we will pilot the English Composition II book in the spring. An added benefit of OER and Pressbooks is that we’ll be able to continually revise, refine, and add to the textbooks in response to student feedback and our experiences teaching with the books,” she continues.

OER is also being used in English as a Second Language classes. “Despite years of searching, I could never find a writing textbook that fully met the needs of my intermediate multilingual writing students. As a result, I created my own materials, but they were disorganized across separate documents and platforms. Creating an OER textbook allowed me to bring all these materials together; I was able to write one interactive textbook tailored to the unique needs and preferences of my writing students,” adds  Lindsey Hageman, Instructor of English as a Second Language, who created an OER textbook for students in the Advanced English Reading & Writing III class.

When surveyed, 65% of RVCC students reported that using OER improved their ability to complete assignments; 55% said it increased their satisfaction of the learning experience; and 50% reported that it increased their interest in the subject or assigned readings. In addition, 95% of students surveyed said they would take another OER course or recommend an OER course to a friend. Students said they appreciate being able to access their course materials anytime and at any place they need them, and they find the OER easy to use.

For additional information about Open Educational Resources at RVCC, contact Instructional Services Librarian Megan Dempsey at megan.dempsey@raritanval.edu.

RVCC is located at 118 Lamington Road in Branchburg, NJ. For further information, visit www.raritanval.edu.

###

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 31, 2025

Media contact: Donna Stolzer, 908-526-1200, ext. 8383

PR #38