Affordable Learning Materials Champions

Ava Farahany designs her RN-to-BS courses with a strong focus on affordability and usability for working nurses. Recognizing that most students balance professional responsibilities and family life, she has replaced nearly all paid materials with open-access clinical guidelines, free toolkits, professional nursing resources, and faculty-created videos and guides. She also integrates interactive H5P activities, simple templates, and visual learning tools to keep students engaged without adding any extra cost.

A key aspect of her teaching is open pedagogy. Many assignments ask students to create practical materials, such as infographics, patient education tools, case studies, and care coordination resources, that they can apply directly in their nursing practice for a meaningful learning experience. 

She collaborates closely with Affordable Learning Materials liaison, Jennifer Marsh, and regularly gathers student feedback to refine her courses. Her goal is straightforward: to provide high-quality learning experiences that reduce financial strain and support nurses in their real-world practice.

Lanny Inabnit is a clinical assistant professor in the School of Respiratory Care Sciences, teaching in both the BSRC-Degree Advancement Program and the MSRC Online Program. He is committed to finding inventive ways to reduce costs for students, as by integrating Open Educational Resources into his courses. After completing a Pressbooks webinar, he began developing an OER textbook for a new course on evidence-based medicine. The resulting Pressbook, created as a remix of two existing sources, was implemented as a resource in RC 497: Evidence-Based Analysis of Cardiopulmonary Disease Outcomes. Student feedback on the new material has been very positive.

Building on this success, Inabnit plans to develop additional OER materials to support another course. His Pressbook, Principles of Evidence-Based Practice and Epidemiology, is freely available here: https://boisestate.pressbooks.pub/principlesofevidencebasedpracticeandepidemiology/

Darci McCall, clinical professor in Boise State’s RN-BS nursing program, prioritizes making learning resources affordable as well as meaningful and relevant. In her courses – Vulnerable Populations: Substance Use, Vulnerable Populations: Critical Issues in Obstetrics, and Healthcare Technology and Innovations – students don’t rely on traditional textbooks. Instead, they use materials selected from the Boise State Library, such as professional journal articles, as well as credible open-access sources that support course outcomes and reflect current nursing practice.

This approach removes the financial strain of costly textbooks while connecting students with the same tools used by practicing nurses. Students engage with competency frameworks, professional standards, the Code of Ethics for Nurses, and leadership resources like StandOut 2.0, deepening their understanding of evidence-based care and professional growth. By guiding students to work with authentic, real-world nursing materials, Dr. McCall helps them build information literacy, critical thinking, and lifelong learning habits. With this approach, she reduces barriers, fosters professional confidence, and prepares nurses to deliver safe, ethical, and high-quality care.

Lynn Nichols focuses on expanding access to high-quality, affordable learning materials in the RN–BS program by integrating Open Educational Resources (OER) that honor the unique needs of students. She explores alternatives to traditional textbooks, incorporating published articles, professional organization resources, and reputable clinical websites to provide current, relevant content. Across the RN–BS curriculum, students use two core resources available in the format of their choice, either free web-based materials or optional printed versions, supporting learners who range from recent Associate Degree in Nursing graduates comfortable with digital platforms to experienced nurses who prefer hard-copy materials.

As RN–BS Program Director, she encourages faculty to adopt innovative, cost-effective materials that serve as meaningful substitutes for textbooks and strengthen learning outcomes. She has developed courses in both the RN–BS and Doctor of Nursing Practice programs, consistently incorporating OER when appropriate. Her commitment to affordable resources reduces financial barriers, keeps course content aligned with professional standards, promotes access to nursing education, and supports student success.

Brian Stone is deeply committed to advancing open educational practices, reducing student costs, and expanding access to high-quality learning materials. He integrates open and affordable learning materials across nearly all of his psychology courses. He helped lead the department-wide shift away from a costly proprietary textbook contract in PSYC 101, transitioning the program to the free OpenStax Psychology 2e text. Across seven course designs, he now relies almost entirely on zero-cost OER or very low-cost materials. In his Cognitive Psychology course, for example, he replaced a $300 textbook with Daniel Kahneman’s affordable Thinking, Fast and Slow and developed openly shared assignments around the book, including a recorded “Book Club” discussion series. He also focuses on providing open technologies, like open statistics software options rather than paid tools like SPSS.

His scholarship and teaching consistently center on openness. He shares his innovative assignments with other instructors and his lectures with learners around the world, through his The Cognitive Scientist YouTube channel. He also incorporates other freely available journal articles into his courses. He co-developed an OER-based course that partnered students with blind and low-vision community members to design and openly share 3D-printable learning tools, an effort later published as an open access article, 3D Printing and Service Learning: Accessible Open Educational Resources for Students with Visual Impairment, to support wider adoption. He freely shares activities and assignments around adopting or being resistant to AI technology, as in his blog post A case study alternative to papers, adjusting to recent AI developments and Boise State knowledge base article Cognition in a Large Language Model. He also publishes his scholarly work through open access whenever possible.

As a Teach Access foundation grant recipient, an Idaho OPAL (Openness, Pedagogy, And Learning) Fellow and Wiki Scholar, he contributes to expanding open knowledge ecosystems. He has facilitated the adoption of accessibility as a learning topic into the psychology curriculum, and is sharing how to leverage Wiki tools in education and research. His work reflects a sustained commitment to accessibility and the public good.

Veronica Van Ry began her OER journey while searching for course materials that connected sociology and communication for the SOC 122 course. When she found few resources that addressed both disciplines, she decided to create her own. 

Through the Open Education Development Series, she authored and published Sociological Communication, available at https://boisestate.pressbooks.pub/soc122secondedition/, an open textbook now in its second edition and freely available through Pressbooks. The text integrates interactive learning activities, media examples, and inclusive design principles to make complex sociological concepts more engaging and accessible for students. 

Her approach to affordable learning is guided by the goals of reducing student costs, increasing accessibility, and fostering belonging in online learning environments. Students have shared that the OER’s clear organization and free access help them feel more confident and included. Inspired by this feedback, Van Ry continues to expand her use of open and affordable materials to enhance equity and student success across her courses. 

JoAnn Wood believes accounting becomes far more accessible when its language is clear and approachable. Because the core principles of financial and managerial accounting remain constant, she wrote an Open Educational Resource (OER) textbook designed to simplify these key concepts while eliminating the need for costly materials. The OER text reduces cognitive overload often found in traditional accounting books by providing students a more straightforward path to understanding.

She also uses the resource in other Intermediate and Cost Accounting courses, where it helps clarify topics that standard textbooks present in overly complex ways. The OER offers students additional support at no cost and strengthens student comprehension across multiple accounting classes.

In less than a year, her OER textbook has saved more than 400 students over $120 each, significantly reducing financial barriers while improving learning. The textbook is freely available at: https://boisestate.pressbooks.pub/bsumbaaccounting/

Karen Wadley has incorporated affordable learning materials in her Latin language and University Foundations courses since 2011, making use of low-cost, quality-content textbooks that can be used through multiple semesters and creating digital textbooks for advanced Latin translation courses. She has intentionally incorporated educational content on platforms such as TedTalk and Youtube, free online publications and Latin text databases, and Albertsons Library resources, in order to reduce cost for students and to make the course materials representative of voices marginalized in academia. She also actively engages students as content creators. Students in her Upper Division Latin classes transcribe and translate an authentic Latin language text as part of the Historia Scholastica Project, building a resource for students and researchers in disciplines beyond History and Classics to draw upon in interdisciplinary studies. Students in her Foundations of Ethics and Diversity: Writing Science Fiction courses create the majority of short fiction read and experienced in the class, with reflection and revision assignments directly drawing on these products.

De De Gardner is co-developing two Open Educational Resources (OER) with students. The first OER aims to create a practical educational resource for the Respiratory Therapy 204 Laboratory Course, focusing on airway clearance and lung expansion therapies (ACLE). This resource is designed to teach respiratory therapy students about these devices and therapies, which they will then use to assist individuals living with acute and chronic lung diseases, such as cystic fibrosis, which leads to retained lung secretions. Such mucus retention can worsen lung conditions, potentially resulting in respiratory failure and the need for mechanical ventilation. The therapeutic devices featured in the OER can treat or prevent these secondary conditions. Students have been divided into five groups, each assigned to a different therapeutic device. After completing a literature review, they will spend the next five weeks developing chapters for the OER, integrating H5P tools, videos, and other resources. This initiative will result in the creation of the first and only interactive OER for respiratory therapy, specifically tailored for respiratory therapy students. The second OER focuses on early mobility for mechanically ventilated patients and is being developed in collaboration with a graduate student.

Baker Lawley began his journey with OER in the summer of 2020 when, after realizing there was not a viable textbook for his Credit for Prior Learning seminar, he decided the best solution was just to write one. With the support of the OER Open Book Summer Grant from eCampus, Lawley remixed and wrote a textbook for his IPS 301: Prior Learning Portfolio Development course that is still in active use.

The successful implementation of this textbook, along with students expressing appreciation for a free resource, inspired Lawley to continue developing OER. His next compilation combined original writing and remixed OER material in a textbook for a core course in his program, IPS/BAS. This textbook for IPS 385: Asking Questions, Framing Problems focuses on the creative process and updates dated, difficult readings for a modern adult-learner audience. He is also developing a new course, Work-Integrated Learning, and will use OER and other free resources in this course as well.

Lawley believes in expanding access to higher education, and feels that adopting or creating free source materials is a powerful way to lessen the financial burden of higher education and  increase student retention.

Dr. Logan Steele developed a new People Analytics course for the College of Business and Economics at Boise State University. As this field – which applies data analytics to human resource decisions – is relatively new, traditional textbooks are scarce and quickly become outdated. Instead of requiring expensive textbooks, Dr. Steele curated affordable materials from business books, industry blogs, and business press articles. He partnered with Associate Professor and Librarian Heather Grevatt and Instructional Design Consultant Nicole Holten Baird to secure institutional licenses for key business texts through the library, making them freely accessible to students. This approach not only reduces costs but ensures students learn from current, practical resources. The combination of freely available business content and library-licensed materials creates an affordable, up-to-date learning experience that serves as a model for teaching emerging business topics.

Jennifer is an advocate for faculty utilizing Affordable Learning Materials (ALM) in their courses. She exhibits this by utilizing an Open Educational Resources (OER) textbook in the Evidence Based Practice Course for the RNBS Online Completion Track, and she is currently working with a Research and Innovation Consultant through the eCampus Center to research and/or develop other Affordable Learning Materials.  She is currently working on utilizing or constructing an OER book for the Population Health and the Population Health Experiential Learning Project course in the RNBS Online Completion Track.  Her work in researching Affordable Learning Materials for her courses allows her to be in a position to share Open Education Resource(s) with colleague(s).  Her desire to learn more about Affordable Learning Materials led her to enroll in the Affordable Learning Materials Certificate through the Center of Teaching and Learning with a completion date of Spring 2025. Jennifer will also serve as a faculty representative on the Affordable Learning Materials Steering Committee starting in October of 2024.