UB research lab studies how university courses can be more ‘open’ - UB Now: News and views for UB faculty and staff - University at Buffalo

"The Graduate School of Education has joined the SUNY-wide effort to reduce the costs of higher education by launching an Open Education Research Lab dedicated to replacing high-priced textbooks and other costly materials by studying the use of open or free educational materials that can be downloaded, edited or shared. “Open educational resources (OER) have all the advantages of a Wikipedia, another open resource, but are designed specifically for students and instructors to use in their courses,” according to Sam Abramovich, director of UB’s Open Education Research Lab and assistant professor in the Graduate School of Education. The UB effort aligns the university with a statewide effort to enhance and extend the use of these open educational resources. The New York State budget has allocated $16 million for these resources in the last two years...."