What are Course Notes?
Course Notes are a system for labeling sections in the schedule of classes in a way that students will know the course materials are low-cost or no-cost.
How to Get Started
If you teach courses using no-cost or low-cost materials, please use or ask your course schedulers to use the standardized codes for your course sections. Below are the CourseLeaf/People Soft codes and the text of the notes as it will appear in the course schedules:
-
0282: This section uses zero-cost course materials/textbooks ($0)
-
0283: This section uses low-cost course materials/textbooks (under $50)
If you are looking for open or affordable course materials, including library eBooks, suitable to replace commercial materials in your class, please visit Finding OER, email lidiya.grote@louisville.edu, or schedule a consultation with the UofL Affordable Learning Coordinator.
The Initiative
The University of Louisville Libraries developed and approved an Affordable Learning and Open Educational Resources (OER) initiative in 2023 to advance student success, improve retention rates, and increase educational opportunities across various demographic groups.
In Fall 2023, the Affordable Learning and OER Workgroup focused on developing, implementing, and promoting zero-cost and low-cost course notes, the use of which was piloted in Spring 2024, and the results have been impressive:
- 147 class sections across over 20 programs are using zero-cost and no-cost course notes;
Discipline/
Program
Number of
Course Sections
Number of
Students
Anthropology (ANTH) 6 122 Bioethics 3 2 Business 2 25 Communications 8 107 Entrepreneurship 3 38 History 6 120 Humanities 18 358 Law 6 187 Liberal Studies 2 38 Linguistics 2 5 Master of Business Administration 6 144 Microbiology and Immunology 7 29 Management 7 202 Marketing 6 63 Social Work (MSSW) 1 18 Pan-African Studies 2 15 Philosophy 29 524 Public Health (PHMS, PHPB, PHPH) 11 114 Physiology (PHZB) 3 32 Sociology (SOC) 9 149 Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies 10 106 Totals 147 2398 - cumulative student savings are over $206,000 (a calculation based on the average cost of textbooks in 2023, which was $105.37 according to the Education Data Initiative)
The Affordable Learning and OER Workgroup (ALOW) looks forward to the continuation and expansion of the use of zero-cost and low-cost course materials noted in Summer and Fall 2024 and subsequent semesters and years.
