Objectives

To determine whether the City University of New York (CUNY) is using Open Educational Resources (OER) funds to establish, sustain, and enhance new and ongoing OER initiatives at its colleges to help defray textbook costs for students, and whether the OER initiatives adequately engaged faculty in the redesign of courses using OER. Our audit covered the period from April 2017 through March 2024.

About the Program

CUNY comprises 11 senior colleges; seven community colleges; and seven graduate, honors, and professional schools located throughout New York City’s five boroughs. As of the Fall 2023 semester, approximately 233,000 students were enrolled at CUNY’s 25 colleges, graduate, and professional schools. The annual tuition in 2023 for a New York State resident pursuing a bachelor’s degree full time at CUNY was $6,930. On top of tuition costs, CUNY estimates that students spend an average of $1,200 per year on books and other supplies. CUNY reported that the cost of books and supplies is often a barrier to academic success.

OER are any teaching, learning, and research materials that are in the public domain or are under copyright but have been released under an open license and are available to students at no or low cost. OER can be full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, or software. OER can be used, reused, and customized under an intellectual property license that permits their free use while ensuring authors retain copyright to their work. OER can be an alternative to traditional paid textbooks and materials.

During the 6 CUNY fiscal years ended June 30, 2023, CUNY received a total of $24 million in New York State funds to expand OER initiatives as part of an effort to create OER to reduce textbook costs. CUNY’s Office of Library Services (OLS) is tasked with providing the oversight and infrastructure for distributing the OER funds. As of September 2024, CUNY’s OER repository, OpenEd CUNY, contained 7,776 OER materials from multiple disciplines. This included, among other resources, 2,426 full courses, 921 modules, 913 textbooks, and 489 assignments.

To assist students in identifying OER courses, CUNY requires that all OER courses, both State-funded and non-State-funded OER, be designated as ZTC (Zero Textbook Cost) in CUNYfirst, CUNY’s system for course registration. Since November 2018, CUNY has published six annual OER reports that, among other high-level information, present student cost savings data. In February 2024, CUNY reported that, as of Fall 2023, 46,608 course sections had been converted to OER, yielding an aggregate savings of $108,172,100 across 1,081,721 students.

Key Findings

The use of OER has the potential to generate significant cost savings for students and reduce barriers to academic success, making it a valuable initiative. To maximize the effectiveness and transparency of CUNY’s OER program, improvements are needed in oversight and accountability. This includes the implementation of formal, system-wide policies and procedures to ensure that OER funds are spent responsibly and tracked effectively. For example, among our key findings:

• CUNY did not track $17,674,400 of the $24 million in OER funds received from the State for the 2018–2023 CUNY fiscal years. As a result, it is not clear how much of the $24 million was spent and, if spent, for what purposes. This includes:
  • $10,615,757 in expenses ($9,327,812 in personal services and $1,287,945 in other than personal services [OTPS]) that was reportedly spent but for which CUNY could not provide transaction details or supporting documentation. As such, we have no assurance the funds were used for course conversion and OER activities.
  • $7,058,643 that CUNY could not account for, and we have no assurance whether it was used for its intended purpose or if it was even used.
• CUNY also spent $238,094 in OTPS expenses that were unsupported, not OER related, or questionable.

We also question the accuracy of OER reporting in CUNYfirst. While each college is responsible for marking its courses as ZTC in CUNYfirst, CUNY does not exercise sufficient oversight to ensure all OER courses are appropriately identified. We found errors and omissions, which could be misleading to students when registering for courses.

Furthermore, we question the accuracy of the student cost savings data that resulted from OER funding that CUNY reports to the public. CUNY’s calculation factors in all courses labeled ZTC regardless of whether the course was developed with or without State OER funding. As a result, CUNY’s reported student cost savings from State OER funding may be overstated.

Lastly, we found some faculty were reluctant or unaware of how to participate in the OER program. While OLS performs outreach to encourage OER adoption across colleges, CUNY itself could take a more active role to promote the program and address barriers to participation. Not only would this help to strengthen CUNY’s OER program overall, but its potential expansion would help ensure colleges maximize their State OER allocations and provide more cost savings opportunities for students.

Key Recommendations

• Establish and document an OER fund spending and reporting policy and related procedures to ensure that OER funds are spent appropriately and tracked adequately.
• Review the $10.6 million in reported expenses ($9.3 million in personal services and $1.3 million in OTPS) to ensure that the OER funds were spent for OER creation, and account for the $7.1 million in OER allocations.
• Review the $238,094 in questionable and unsupported OER OTPS transactions and reimburse the OER allocations as appropriate.
• Ensure OER courses are consistently and accurately recorded in CUNYfirst.
• Ensure that OER conversion and cost savings estimates reported to the public are accurate and complete.
• Take steps to enhance faculty outreach to improve faculty awareness and reduce barriers to participation, and to ensure all available funds are used.