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12 Universities, 1 Powerful Publishing Tool.

Aggie students save millions of dollars each year when their classes include low- to no-cost textbooks and course materials — a direct result of the Texas A&M University Libraries’ OpenEd office, the Office of the Provost and The Texas A&M University System. 

The low- to no-cost concept, also referred to as open educational resources (OER), has proven so successful that OpenEd’s reach expanded to support all of The Texas A&M System’s 12-member institutions this year. 

Now, from institutions across the vast A&M System, faculty and staff have the ability to edit and export open educational resources in a variety of popular publishing formats, all while maintaining complete control over individual content.

“There’s never been a better time to be a part of OpenEd,” said Jennifer Pate, director of OpenEd. “I’m proud of our tireless efforts to create, find and advocate for low- or no-cost course materials. The millions of dollars saved will have an impact on Texas A&M and Texas A&M System schools for generations to come.”

This success was achieved with the help of the Texas A&M System’s academic affairs department. Dr. James Hallmark, vice chancellor for academic affairs, spearheaded efforts for OpenEd to manage a shared Texas A&M System network called the Texas A&M University System Open Digital Publishing platform (ODP).

A New Interactive, One-Stop Savings Dashboard 

The OpenEd Data Dashboard highlights the impact of open education efforts at a glance. It showcases how initiatives such as Provost grants, library purchases, open digital publishing, and library reserves work together to expand access to affordable course materials and support teaching and learning across the university.

From fall 2024 to fall 2025, for example, students saved $4.3 million. Student OER-related savings, as well as their relationship to university OER-related financial support, are tracked on a frequently updated data dashboard. 

Savings can be explored with filters that include a particular fiscal year, academic year, semester or by campus. 

The dashboard seamlessly breaks down return on investment (ROI) for grants and purchases, ODP page views, and open education usage data. For example, for every $1 spent by the Libraries from fall 2024 to fall 2025 it reaps an ROI of $7.17. It also includes data that illustrates the continuous growth in OER courses and the total student enrollments in those courses.

Coming Together

Access to Pressbooks is part of the OpenEd office’s launch of the ODP, a hub of open educational resources support for system faculty and students. With its new reach, the OpenEd office provides faculty throughout the entire Texas A&M University System with a major, new tool to reduce course material costs for students.

System faculty can create or adapt low- or no-cost textbooks and educational materials with Pressbooks, a WordPress-based publishing platform renowned for its user-friendly ease-of-use interface.

Librarians in College Station and the A&M System have been a critical part of the growth of open educational material development and adoption. 

As one of the system's newer members, Texas A&M University-San Antonio has faced hurdles developing its own OER content, said Deirdre McDonald, A&M-San Antonio University Library assistant director. “This collaboration has allowed us to draw on the strengths of our colleagues within the system to support our faculty as they explore their options with OER. In less than six months we have been able to get two books under production, with one already in use in our courses.”

McDonald said her library would not have been able to get those efforts started without the financial and technical support from OpenEd’s new ODP platform. 

“We look forward to seeing the different works coming out of our system schools and to share our skills and knowledge,” McDonald said.

Brandon Assmann, Tarleton State University faculty services librarian, said the introduction of ODP has increased faculty openness to publish textbooks using open educational resources.

Tarleton State faculty have developed open education materials, then published them with the OpenEd office's platform, Assmann said.

Enhanced Savings

The ability to publish OERs with Pressbooks is a gamechanger, said Sara Northam, East Texas A&M University Velma K. Waters Library director of research and instruction.

“It is a good way to get your OER work recognized and discoverable through internet search engines and other platforms,” Northam said. “Additionally, it associates the work with the TAMU System.”

Northam said Texas A&M University Libraries’ OpenEd staff have been “invaluable resources” in guiding users through the process of adding work to ODP. She is excited to see what’s next, as she said various schools in the system have to create and adopt OERs on campus, and that open digital publishing has enhanced those previous efforts.