The Campus Library and the Center for Faculty Development have collaborated once again to offer the Course Material Transformation Fellowship for 2023-2024.
This fellowship supports instructors in their efforts to adopt and create affordable course materials, including open educational resources (OER), library licensed content, and open access materials. The Fellowship Program aims to:
- Lower the cost of college for students in order to contribute to their retention, progression, and graduation.
- Encourage the development of alternatives to high-cost textbooks by supporting the adoption, adaptation, and creation of Open Educational Resources (OER)
- Make course material access on the first day of class a reality for all students, regardless of socioeconomic status.
Fellowship recipients will receive a $2,000 stipend from the Center for Faculty Development and will have the assistance of instructional technologists and librarians during the process of locating, developing, and adapting the course material.
We are happy to announce the recipients of the 2023-2024 Course Material Transformation Fellowship, Dr. Deborah Miller and Dr. Young You.
Dr. Deborah Miller is an associate professor of psychology and chair of the psychology department. Dr. Miller will be exploring OER options for PSY-P324 Abnormal Psychology, like this OER textbook, to create her own IU Pressbook containing text, videos, and exam questions as well as a case study workbook. This course shell will also be used by adjunct faculty teaching Abnormal Psychology across all sections.
“Using open educational resources benefits students in many ways – it reduces their financial burden while providing immediate access to course materials on the first day of class, even for students who would normally skip buying the textbook due to lack of funds. The benefits to instructors are extensive as well – courses can be highly customized, materials more closely aligned with learning outcomes, and continually improved by modifying and adding new OER materials.”
Dr. Miller also notes that, “the psychology department at IU East is in a great position to begin utilizing OER materials on a more extensive basis. As one of the majors included in the scale-up project…this is a great time to also modify our courses to include OER materials.”
The current etext cost for Abnormal Psychology from McGraw-Hill is $50. With an estimated 150 students each year, the potential textbook cost savings for one year is $7,500. Dr. Miller is planning to have this course shell ready for fall 2024.
Dr. Young You is an associate professor of mathematics. Dr. You will be redesigning the existing MATH-M312 (Calculus IV) to a zero-cost textbook course. Dr. You is planning to replace Pearson’s MyMathLab by creating algorithmically generated problems in the open assessment system, MyOpenMath. He’ll also create new lecture videos that will reference the new materials, including open textbook “Calculus, Volume 3” authored by Gilbert Strang and Edwin Jed Herman as the course book.
Dr. You states, “there are two primary challenges associated with using the publisher’s version of the eTextbook, such as MyMathLab. Firstly, it pertains to the cost of the eTextbook. Prior to adopting IU eTextbook for MyMathlab, expenses often exceeded $100. At present, the mathematics department is adopting Mymathlab as IU eText, which costs $52.19. Although the current cost is significantly lower, it still surpasses the $50 mark. Secondly, there are constraints on instructors’ ability to develop their own custom resources, including questions and interactive tools.”
Using open educational resources and cost-free systems like MyOpenMath, “would render the course devoid of textbook expenses and empower instructors to craft their own instructional materials and interactive resources.”
This course, offered every spring and summer semester, has about 60-70 students each year, but this number is expected to grow with the Program-of-Scale initiative. The potential textbook cost savings for one year is $3,653.30. Dr. You plans to have this material ready for spring 2025.
Last year’s recipients, Dr. Jill Schweitzer (Biology) and Dr. Pepe Gimenez (Mathematics) both successfully transitioned their courses, BIOL-T571/CHEM-T-550 (Introduction to Biochemistry) and MATH-M303 (Linear Algebra) respectively, to zero-cost textbook courses that provided engagement and ease of access to course materials to their students. Overall, the student feedback on the OER materials created or adopted has been very positive. Dr. Schweitzer replaced a $102.50 textbook with an OER, providing a textbook cost savings of $4,305 for the summer 2023 semester and Dr. Gimenez replaced an $48.71 etextbook, saving his students $2,484.21 in fall 2023.
We look forward to seeing what Dr. Miller and Dr. You accomplish. If you are an IU East faculty member who is interested in this fellowship opportunity or in learning about OER in general, contact Assistant Librarian of Access and Technical Services Beth South at eabrockm@iue.edu.