The OU Price College of Business will begin giving grants to match those given by OU Libraries to faculty members who adopt alternative textbooks in an effort to reduce the cost of textbooks for students.
In the third year the University Libraries’ Alternative Textbook Initiative has been offered, 18 OU faculty members have applied to receive the grant and to begin working on their alternative textbook, said Karen Rupp-Serrano, the interim associate dean for scholarly resources and services. In the two previous grant cycles, 21 OU faculty members total have received a grant and been awarded a total of $51,100, according to the University Libraries’ website.
Rupp-Serrano said the money for the grants comes from funds set aside to assist with textbook costs. In addition to the Price College of Business, the College of Arts & Sciences also gives out matching grants to its faculty members who receive the Libraries’ grants. Faculty from the colleges of Engineering, Fine Arts, Architecture and Journalism & Mass Communication have also participated in the grant program, Rupp-Serrano said. The maximum grant given is $2,500.
Cody Taylor, an electrical engineering senior who assists Rupp-Serrano with the Alternative Textbook Initiative, said alternative textbooks are "for the most part just textbooks, but sometimes it’s YouTube videos, journal articles and just websites in general that are publicly accessible."
Laku Chidambaram, the associate dean of academic programs and engagement, said the Price College of Business is trying out a small pilot project involving four areas within the college. He said the college became interested in the grant program because they wanted to save students money.
Chidambaram said four Price college faculty members have expressed interest in the program and one has applied for the grant so far. "We are testing the impact," Chidambaram said.
Price College is mainly focused on incorporating open textbooks into their classes.
Open textbooks are "essentially free textbooks that are not copyrighted and are available online," Chidambaram said. "One big advantage is that faculty can customize these books; they can use a certain chapter or set of chapters, they can add material if they want, and they can mix and match chapters from more than one open textbook.
"It’s a win-win for both; it’s more affordable for the students and more flexible for the faculty," Chidambaram said.
While this program is new for Price College, faculty members who had received an alternative textbook grant in one of the previous cycles are beginning to implement their new books into their classes. Eli Bridge, an assistant professor in the Oklahoma Biological Survey, received a grant from the Libraries last year for $2,500, as well as a matching grant from the College of Arts & Sciences.
Instead of using open textbooks, Bridge used his grant money to pay a graduate student to take his lecture notes and "turn them into a simple text layout," Bridge said. He then created a free online textbook for his Principles of Physiology course to replace a $200 book he had been using. Bridge’s class has 100 students.
"I actually polled the class one time and said, 'How many of you own this book or rent this book?' and it was maybe 30 percent of the class," Bridge said.
The goal of the online book was to "tell stories and make it more engaging (and) more interesting for the students," Bridge said. One example is a chapter on the immune system that he said "reads like a mystery novel." The online book is better aligned with the class than the previously used textbook, Bridge said.
The deadline to apply for this year’s grants expired at the end of March, but faculty in Price College still have time to turn in their applications.
Professors who want to apply can contact University Libraries with questions about the the grants, Rupp-Serrano said. University Libraries can also help professors deal with copyright issues.
