NNMC News:
ESPAÑOLA — The New Mexico Open Educational Resources (NMOER) Consortium is proud to announce that Northern New Mexico College (NNMC) has officially joined as its fourth member. As part of this new partnership, NNMC has been awarded a $6,000 grant to promote the use of Open Educational Resources (OER) on its campus, further strengthening the state’s commitment to college affordability.
Launched in 2024, the NMOER Consortium is a statewide partnership led by the University of New Mexico in collaboration with Central New Mexico Community College and Santa Fe Community College. Supported by a $2.124 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the consortium works to replace traditional, high-cost textbooks with openly licensed materials that are free for students to use, share, and keep.
“We are very excited to welcome Northern New Mexico College to the NMOER consortium,” said Jennifer Jordan, OER Librarian and Principal Investigator on the NMOER Open Textbook Pilot Grant. “Our goal is to make college more affordable for students through supporting faculty and institutions with OER programming and publishing, and we look forward to growing the reach of openly licensed, student-centered curriculum that responds to the educational needs of New Mexico’s higher education students.”
Removing Barriers to Success The cost of college textbooks rose by 1,041% between 1977 and 2015—three times the rate of inflation. These costs create significant obstacles for New Mexico students, particularly those at public institutions serving Hispanic, Indigenous, rural, first-generation, and low-income learners. A study at UNM found that high course material costs often force students to skip purchasing required texts, withdraw from courses, or even change their majors. NNMC Library Director Martin Shupla is excited about the OER movement coming to Northern students. “Putting free books into the hands of students is a dream come true for a librarian.”
OER materials address these barriers by ensuring that financial status does not dictate academic preparation. Because these resources are digital and openly available, students have access on the very first day of class and never have to worry about being without the materials they need to succeed.
Proven Impact
In just the 2024–2025 academic year, the NMOER Consortium saved students a combined $1,105,043. To date, the program has:
- Published 12 original OER projects with 87 more currently in development.
- Supported a project breakdown of 28 initiatives at UNM, 24 at SFCC, and 48 at CNM.
- Utilized a specialized team, including a program coordinator, editors, and multimedia specialists, to assist faculty in authoring and adapting materials.
While federal funding for the program is currently set to end in December 2026, the addition of Northern New Mexico College marks a critical step in expanding OER growth across the state in the absence of continued statewide support.
For more information about the NMOER Consortium and its mission to transform higher education through open access, visit nmoer.org.
The New Mexico Open Educational Resources (NMOER) Consortium is a statewide movement dedicated to ensuring every learner in New Mexico has access to free, high-quality course materials. Led by the University of New Mexico, the consortium supports faculty in adopting and authoring OER to create more equitable learning conditions for all students.