In striving to make higher education accessible for all Montanans, MUS OER logothe Montana University System supports Open Educational Resources as an important affordability strategy. Open Educational Resources (OER) are textbooks and course materials that are openly licensed and that dramatically decrease costs for students. High textbook costs are often a barrier for students and can often hinder student success. 

The Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education actively partners with MUS campuses and the Treasure State Information and Library Services (TRAILS) consortium to advance use of OER across the system and the state. Through one project that provided grants to MUS faculty to adopt OER, MUS students have saved over $1 million in textbook costs. Learn more about that project here.