LibGuides: Free, Open, and Affordable Resources: ACM Evaluation Worksheet

Finding & Adopting Affordable Course Materials

This worksheet is designed to help you identify, evaluate, and adopt affordable course materials that support student success. Use this guide to reflect on your current materials, discover new resources, and plan actionable steps toward more affordable learning.

1. Define your Need

Find selected resources or replace an entire textbook?
Keywords to search? I.e. topic, unit, course. Tip: Also consult TOC of a valued textbook for alternative terms.
Format or medium preference?

2. Search for Sources

Identify and search resources:

NIU's Free, Open, and Affordable Resources
Library Collections
Talk to your subject specialist librarian

Tip: Keep track of sites & resources searched and keywords used.

3. Evaluate the Sources

Quality

Peer review available
Reputation of author and/or institution
Pedagogy

Appropriateness

Accuracy and timeliness of content
Alignment with course objective or learning outcome
Appropriate reading level (see https://readable.io/text/)

Technical

Technical quality (clear visuals, high production value, well-edited text)
Clear licensing declaration (Creative Commons or other)

EDI and Accessibility

Diverse representation
Compliance with accessibility/UDL best practices (or ability to modify)

4. Adoption

Who might you need to consult or inform of your choice to change materials?

Department chair, departmental textbook committee, and/or faculty who teach the same course
Department scheduler to designate an ACM attribute (low cost ($40 or below) and/or zero cost) in MyNIU
CITL, if assistance is needed to post materials in Blackboard or questions about accessibility

5. Use

How will students access the materials?

Will materials be posted in Blackboard?

Do students need an option to print sections on their own?