The Affordable and Open Educational Resources (AOER) Committee recently announced Oscar Levin, Ph.D. and professor of Mathematical Sciences, as the recipient of the inaugural Open Education Excellence Award.

This honor recognizes Levin's contributions to Open Educational Resources (OER) at UNC and beyond. A founding member of the AOER Committee in 2018, Levin has been instrumental in promoting the adoption and creation of OER across UNC.

In 2021, he represented UNC on the state-wide OER Council and has co-led two Colorado Department of Higher Education (CDHE) grants totaling $86,000, which helped over 2,000 students save a combined $212,000 in two years.

Levin has collaborated with Jen Mayer, interim associate dean of University Libraries, to assess the impact of OER on diversity, equity and inclusion at UNC. His current CDHE grant supports Colorado faculty in developing accessible, interactive OER materials using PreTeXt, a free, open-source markup language optimized for mathematical content.

Levin's is also focused on authoring free OER textbooks. His book, Discrete Mathematics: An Open Introduction, has been used by over 200 institutions globally. The third edition attracted over half a million users in 2022 alone, totaling 2.5 million new users over six years. The fourth edition was released in August 2024 and is also freely accessible online.

Colleagues commend Levin's passion and influence.

"During the pandemic, Dr. Levin organized a session on OER, advocating how it could be 'not only cheaper, but better' than traditional textbooks," said Michael Aldridge, Ph.D. and associate director of the School of Nursing. "His dedication led me to adopt OER for several of my classes. He is a tireless advocate and serves as an example for other faculty."

The AOER Committee celebrates Dr. Levin's unwavering commitment to open education and his significant impact on enhancing educational accessibility and equity.