In celebration of Open Education Week 2025, the Senate of College Councils and UT Libraries partnered to solicit nominations from students across campus to recognize instructors who increased access and equity by selecting free or low cost course materials for their classes. We’ll be recognizing a few of those nominees as Affordable Education Champions!
Affordable Education Champions are instructors who assign free or low cost resources — like textbooks, websites, films, and more — for their courses. (Because the “low cost” definition can vary by discipline, we invited students to determine what that means for them.) Sometimes they author their own materials, and sometimes they’re able to reuse free or low cost work created by others. We share gratitude and appreciation for their commitment to fostering access to high quality education at the lowest possible cost barrier for their students.
Today, we congratulate and thank Dr. Jonathan Perry in the Department of Physics.
Dr. Perry is a Texas native who completed his degrees in physics at Baylor University (BA, MS) and Texas A&M University (PhD) before finding himself at the University of Texas at Austin in 2018. After a year working with the OnRamps dual enrollment program, Dr. Perry made the transition to the instructional faculty in the department of physics where, in addition to teaching, he runs the Learning Assistant program and serves as an associate chair for introductory courses. Beyond his passion for teaching Dr. Perry is also an active physics education researcher, primarily focusing on the impacts of student facilitation of informal physics outreach programs on their identity and career skill development.
When asked what led her to select free or low cost resources for his required course materials, Dr. Perry told us:
There are many textbooks available for the introductory physics courses that I teach. While each of them possesses their own strengths in terms of content and presentation, no textbook is perfect. If I’m going to use an imperfect textbook, I might as well use the one that is free for students to lower the cost of their education.
When asked if he noticed a change in student response or outcomes after making the switch to free or affordable course materials, Dr. Perry told us:
I’ve used OER materials for most of my introductory courses since starting at UT. I’ve found the learning outcomes to be very comparable to what I experienced at other institutions. The bigger differences come from structuring the course for effective student learning, not just the textbook.
When asked what advice he would offer other instructors who are considering transitioning their courses to more affordable materials, Dr. Perry told us:
I would encourage instructors to consider what it is that students really need from course materials to support their learning throughout the course and beyond. When I teach life science majors, physics is not a pre-req for many of their later courses, so I’m content that they have their notes and know where to access material in the future if they need it. For engineering students on the other hand, I know that a physical textbook can be a valuable resource to have on hand in their future if they need to revisit a topic. We should work to align our choices of course materials with what students may need both in our course and beyond it.
Join us in thanking Dr. Perry for his contribution to making UT an environment where students can succeed without high course materials costs!
If you know of an instructor who is dedicated to making their courses as affordable as possible by selecting free or low cost course materials, let us know by contacting Heather Walter, Open Education Librarian (heather.walter@austin.utexas.edu)
