Open Educational Resources (OER) are free online resources replacing high-cost textbooks and other learning materials. Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) is dedicated to fostering the development, adoption, and utilization of freely accessible, high-quality, openly licensed educational resources, as well as other reliable free digital course materials.
NOVA Online contributes to a positive impact on both educational quality and affordability by integrating OER into our online courses. Since 2005, NOVA Online students have collectively saved an impressive $7,400,000.00 by utilizing OER materials.
Find OER Courses in the Schedule of Classes
As you navigate through the online course schedule during registration, be on the lookout for the "OER” designation in course notes to easily identify course sections that leverage free/OER materials, thereby eliminating the requirement for traditional textbook purchases.
How to Find OER Course Sections
- Go to Schedule of Classes
- Choose Search for a Class
- Choose the semester and subject area of the courses you are looking for
- Choose “NOVA Online” in the Locations section
- In the course notes, look for the following information: OER-no cost textbooks
