This spring, NIU’s Course Materials Affordability Task Force (CMAT) presented the third annual Affordable Course Materials (ACM) Department Awards. These awards are part of the task force’s Leading Impact Program, which supports and recognizes academic departments and individual faculty for their adoption of Open Educational Resources (OER) and low-cost materials in courses.
Starting in 2022, affordable course materials designators—for sections with zero cost or low-cost materials ($40 or less)—were implemented in MyNIU so that students can search for and filter courses with affordable materials (defined as required books, textbooks, eBooks, streaming video, CDs, or DVDs) at the time of registration.
CMAT uses course attributes to identify the departments offering the highest percentage of course sections with affordable course materials. The top three departments for the 2024-2025 academic year are:
- Departmental Achievement Award: Orientation and First Year Orientation’s UNIV courses with 100% of their courses designated as low or zero cost
- Departmental Honorable Mention Award: Department of Sociology with 46% of their courses designated as low or zero cost
- Departmental Outstanding Effort Award: Center for Nonprofit and NGO Studies with 42% of their courses designated as low or zero cost
In addition to receiving a plaque and digital badge, the ACM Department Awards come with monetary prizes funded by the University Libraries. The winning program and departments were presented their awards at their year-end program and college senate meetings.
In 2024-2025, free or low-cost course materials were used in 787 course sections, impacting 18,020 students enrolled and resulting in $2.1 M in savings for NIU students. This is a 14% increase in sections and a 23% increase in students enrolled from last year: that is a 44% increase in courses and 53% increase in students enrolled since CMAT was launched in 2021, saving NIU students more than $5.2 M!
Learn more about adopting low or no cost course materials in the University Libraries’ OER Libguide!
