Free textbooks, when fully embraced by administrators and faculty, lead to better student outcomes, a new American Association of Colleges and Universities report finds. Open educational resources, or OER, emerged at the turn of the century to make college less expensive. A two-year study examining 700,000 student records and featuring 240 faculty interviews across 15 institutions contends that free learning materials accomplish much more. Courses that offered students free course materials lowered course withdrawals, increased the number of A’s earned and decreased, by a year, the time to graduation for community college students.