Student Resources
Affordable Learning
Our Affordable Learning community is here to help you and other students locate high-quality, more affordable course materials because we understand that these costs can be stressful. With the rising costs of higher education, the CSU and SF State are proactively developing solutions through teaching initiatives that encourage faculty adoption and implementation of low or zero-cost course materials.
Get Involved
Make your voice heard!
You can become a campus advocate for Affordable Learning. Educate and encourage instructors to consider affordable learning resources for their course content.
- Highlight your personal story by submitting quotes or videos to increase student advocacy for Affordable Learning.
- Become part of the student-led Cal State Student Association (CSSA), where students engage in systemwide, state and federal higher education policymaking.
- Increase your knowledge of Senate Resolutions for Affordable Course Materials and leverage that information in speaking with your instructor, department or college.
Tell us your story by email the Affordable Learning team at at@sfsu.edu.
Zero Cost Course Materials
Find courses with zero or low-cost course materials by searching the SFSU course catalog.
For Prospective SFSU Students — Instructions on how to search for Courses with Zero Cost Course Materials using the SFSU Class Schedule:
- Navigate to the San Francisco State University Class Schedule.
- Select the section labeled “Advanced Class Search.” Enter the information for the type of class you are interested in.
- Scroll to bottom of the “Advanced Class Search” section, locate the option for “Course Attribute”.
- Select “Zero Cost Course Materials” from the drop-down list.
Select the “Advanced Search” button, resulting in a list of courses designated with the “Zero Cost Course Materials”. These courses will be designated by a “Zero Cost Course Materials” logo.
For Current SFSU Students — Instructions on how to search for courses with Zero Cost Course Materials on SFSU Gateway (requires SFSU login):
- After logging into SFSU Gateway, select “Schedule/Classes” from the navigation menu on the left, under the “Student” section.
- Under the “Textbook & Course Materials” section, select the “Class Schedule” link.
- Enter search criteria in the webform, then find the “Additional Search Criteria” section. Select the “Course Attribute” option, then select “Zero Cost Course Materials”.
Click the "Search" button at the bottom of the page. This might take some time — a list of courses offered within your search criteria offering zero cost course materials will be generated.
SFSU Resources
Accessible Media Quick Converter
The Accessible Media Quick converter can be used to quickly convert your electronic files into popular accessible formats for example: Audio, Doc, PDF, e-books.
For more information on what the tool does, please view this YouTube video of Sensus Access.
J. Paul Leonard Library
OneSearch Online Articles, Magazines & Journals
SF State Streaming Services:
Kanopy: Streaming video platform that offers movies, documentaries, international cinema, classic cinema, independent films, and educational videos
SFSU Software
Microsoft Office 365 and Windows for Students:
Students enrolled full-time or part-time are eligible for a FREE version of Microsoft Office 365.
Adobe Creative Cloud (CC):
Adobe Creative Cloud is a set of applications and services from Adobe Inc. Users have access to a collection of 20+ desktop and mobile apps.
Digital Image and Video Archive (DIVA)
Digital Image and Visual Archive (DIVA) is an open digital collections archive built and managed by Academic Technology at San Francisco State University. It combines unique media, scholarly materials, and hidden treasures from the campus’s historic local impact. DIVA makes it easy for faculty or groups to establish digital collections accessible to colleagues, students, or the world.
Other Resources
Discover over 400,000 high-resolution art images categorized by artist, material, geography and period (No Rights reserved).
National Gallery of Art Images
Search over 45,000 high-resolution art images available to scholar, educators and the general public to support academic research and teaching by nurturing artistic appreciation.
View over 300,000 high-resolution art images searchable by artist, material, geography, period, color and technique (No Rights Reserved).
Discover the digital archive of the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition history, including primary documents, an index of participating artists and catalogues. Please note: the MOMA’s Art Collection is separate and is neither free nor open.
How ever you learn, MERLOTx can help with FREE Learning Resources and Services! MERLOTx is a student portal, created to help students easily find almost 70,000 quality online learning resources across a wide range of disciplines to support their learning goals.
Digital Public Library of America
Search through photographs, oral histories, museum objects, artwork and government documents in a library that strives to maximize access to shared history, culture and knowledge.
SF State students may receive a free library card. A San Francisco Public Library card opens the door to a world of information and entertainment. In addition to borrowing books, LPs, and museum passes, your card allows you to download digital media, use electronic databases, take online classes, use library computers, and more.
Search available literary works, videos, photos, audio, scientific research and more using.
A non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.
Browse journal articles in diverse scientific subject areas.
Directory of Open Access Journals
Discover open access journals in over 80 languages, representing 124 different countries.
Search through peer-reviewed health education resources.
View a free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature, available from the National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine (NIH/NLM).
Discover over 400,000 free stock photos available for commercial use.
Search for accessible high quality stock photos.
Many Flickr users have chosen to offer their work under a Creative Commons license, and you can browse or search through content under each type of license.
Millions of free photos and graphic resources. All that you need for your Creative Projects.
Over 2 million free high-resolution images brought to you by the world’s most generous community of photographers.
Free stock photos you can use everywhere.
Find your perfect free image or video to download and use for anything.
Literacy and Pedagogy in an Age of Misinformation and Disinformation
This collection grew out of a Literacy in Composition Studies 2017 special issue on "Literacy, Democracy, and Fake News." For this expanded collection, we are thrilled to have partnered with scholars, activists, journalists, technologists, K12 educators, and librarians to deepen those explorations with a focus on network literacy and pedagogical/civic interventions.
View a collection of open textbooks applicable to courses with high-enrollment, including trade and tourism.
Browse through eTextbooks in multiple disciplines that are free with ads; initial download requires an email address.
Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources
Browse an index of online textbooks categorized by department.
Search open textbooks and course materials across disciplines, sponsored by a collaboration between the CSU, UC and CCC.
View free practice exercises and instructional videos on different topics, including science, math, history, art history, economics and more.
The LibreTexts mission is to unite students, faculty and scholars in a cooperative effort to develop an easy-to-use online platform for the construction, customization, and dissemination of open educational resources (OER) to reduce the burdens of unreasonable textbook costs to our students and society.
Browse math, engineering and science textbooks, categorized by department (free and purchase required resources).
Browse limited and high-quality selection of open textbooks, modules and pages for large, intro courses.
Browse through a digital ecosystem that offers resources in the format of books, course notes, or small collections covering a variety of disciplines.
View peer reviewed and open licensed textbooks in multiple disciplines.
Search through approximately 100 downloadable open textbooks, using either ctrl+F for PC or cmd+F for Mac.
SkillsCommons is a free and open online library containing free and open learning materials and program support materials for job-driven workforce development.