All posts by Kristina Devoe

Congratulations to the 2024 Textbook Affordability Project Award Recipients!

Textbook Affordability Project, ,

Guest post by Kristina De Voe, English and communication librarian, with the Open Education Group 

The Temple University Libraries are happy to announce our 2024 Textbook Affordability Project grant award recipients:  

  • Cate Almon, English, College of Liberal Arts 
  • Richard Feder, Law, Beasley School of Law 
  • Alyson Hansbarger, Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, College of Public Health 
  • Cheryl Hyde, Social Work, School of Social Work 
  • Xiuqi Cindy Li, Computer & Information Sciences, College of Science and Technology 
  • Ryan McKee, Social and Behavioral Sciences, College of Public Health 
  • Molly Pooler, Education, College of Education and Human Development 
  • Santosh Sali, International Business Studies, Temple University Japan Campus

These course instructors have all committed to introducing open educational practices in their classrooms during the upcoming academic year and will be moving forward with project plans to adopt zero-cost course materials into their courses.  

As part of the grant, awardees will complete training over the summer, participating in a learning community in which they will increase their awareness around open textbooks, open educational practices, and affordable learning materials. They will also have opportunities to develop their projects.  

The Textbook Affordability Project (TAP) is a grant program that awards funds to Temple faculty members who make their courses more affordable for their students by replacing costly educational resources with library-licensed materials or open educational resources (OER), including open textbooks. Alternatively, faculty can receive funds for engaging in other open educational practices, like creating learning objects or replacing traditional assignments with renewable assignments that center students as creators of knowledge. The call for applications goes out annually in the spring. 

Since 2011, The TAP has granted awards to over 100 faculty across nearly every discipline at Temple University and saved students over one million dollars. 

Celebrate Open Education Week with the Libraries!

Open Education Week, Textbook Affordability Project

Temple University Libraries is celebrating Open Education Week from February 26 to March 1, 2024. Open Education Week is an annual celebration designed to raise awareness about open educational resources and practices. 

What are Open Educational Resources and Practices? 

Open educational resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that are free to read and reuse. Examples of OER include videos, images, lab activities, homework assignments, and textbooks. Open educational practices — also known as open pedagogy — use OER to support learning and invite students to be active participants in the teaching and learning environment, engaging in knowledge creation and sharing. 

Faculty who use OER instead of a commercial textbook can help save students hundreds of dollars a semester. Faculty who use OER can also revise, remix, and build upon the content created by others, customizing the material to meet the needs of their particular class. This can aid in bringing about a more inclusive teaching and learning experience. 

Open Education Week Events  

To mark Open Education Week, Temple University Libraries will be offering the following events and activities: 

Contest for Faculty

  • New this year is a contest for faculty! Attend our faculty open house or workshops for a chance to be entered. Attend more events = earn more tickets! Raffle prizes include a summer study room in Charles Library, a library swag bag, or lunch with Joe Lucia, Dean of Temple University Libraries. 

Waffle OPEN House for Faculty 

  • Our featured faculty event is a tasty one! You’ve heard of Waffle House. Join us on Thursday, February 29, at Charles Library for Waffle OPEN House.  
     
    Come to Suite 375 in Charles Library between 11:00 am and 1:00 pm for waffles, pancakes, coffee, and more – along with informal discussions with our librarians about open educational practices and how to incorporate them into your instructional practice.   

Online Workshops 

  • Textbook Affordability Project Application Information Session 
    Monday, February 26 | Noon | Register 
    Friday, March 1 | Noon| Register 
    Join us as we discuss the TAP grant award opportunities, application process, requirements, and answer any of your application questions. 
     
  • How to Promote Your Open Scholarship 
    Tuesday, February 27 | Noon| Register 
    This workshop will cover strategies on how faculty can promote their open scholarship. This will cover building a scholarly profile, where to store your work, how to showcase your work on social media, and how to express this hard work in the promotion and tenure process. 
     
  • Create, Reuse, Remix: An Intro to Creative Commons Licenses 
    Wednesday, February 28 | Noon | Register 
    Join us as we cover the basics of Creative Commons licenses—what they are, how to find CC-licensed material, and how to license your own work. 
     
  • Zero-Cost Course Material Options: Your Students Will Thank You! 
    Wednesday, February 28 | 1:00 pm | Register 
    Thinking about adopting course materials that are totally free to your students? Not sure where to find them? Join us as we cover multiple options for locating or developing zero-cost content, even when an existing open textbook is not readily available. 
     
  • Share Your Teaching and Learning Materials with TUScholarShare 
    Thursday, March 1 | Noon | Register 
    Temple’s institutional repository, TUScholarShare, provides free online access to textbooks, syllabi, slide decks, tutorials, videos and more created by faculty and staff. Learn about the benefits of sharing your materials, and how to make them open and freely available online to teachers and learners beyond Temple.

Apply for a Textbook Affordability Project Grant! 

Open Education Week is also a great time to learn more about Temple University Libraries’ Textbook Affordability Project, which provides grants ranging from $500 to $1,500 to faculty who adopt, adapt, or create free alternatives to commercial educational resources. Engaging in open educational practices, like replacing a disposable assignment with a renewable assignment, is also an option. Over 100 Temple faculty have been awarded grants since 2011. Applications will be accepted until April 5, 2024. 

We hope you will join us for our Open Education Week events! 

Congratulations to the 2023 Textbook Affordability Project Award Recipients!

Uncategorized,
Collage of headshots of the 2023 Textbook Affordability Project award recipients.
2023 Textbook Affordability Project award recipients

Guest post by Kristina De Voe, English and communication librarian, with the Open Education Group 

The Temple University Libraries are happy to announce our 2023 Textbook Affordability Project grant award recipients:  

  • Norma Corrales-Martin, Spanish and Portuguese, College of Liberal Arts 
  • Marni Cueno, Psychology, Temple University Japan 
  • Graham Dobereiner, Chemistry, College of Science and Technology 
  • Anne Frankel, Social and Behavioral Sciences, College of Public Health  
  • Shuchen Susan Huang, Asian and Middle Eastern Languages and Studies, College of Liberal Arts 
  • Marian Makins, Greek and Roman Classics, College of Liberal Arts 
  • Peter Marshall, Psychology, College of Liberal Arts 
  • Mike McGlin, Greek and Roman Classics, College of Liberal Arts 
  • Adrienne Shaw, Media Studies and Production, Klein College of Media and Communication 
  • Jingwei Wu, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, College of Public Health 

These course instructors have all committed to introducing open educational practices in their classrooms during the upcoming academic year and will be moving forward with project plans to adopt zero-cost learning materials into their courses.  

As part of the grant, awardees will complete training over the summer, participating in a learning community in which they will increase their awareness around open textbooks, open educational practices, and affordable learning materials. They will also have opportunities to develop their projects.  

The Textbook Affordability Project (TAP) is a grant program that awards funds to Temple faculty members who make their courses more affordable for their students by replacing costly educational resources with library-licensed materials or open educational resources (OER), including open textbooks. Alternatively, faculty can receive funds for engaging in other open educational practices, like creating learning objects or replacing a traditional assignment with renewable assignments that center students as creators of knowledge. The call for applications goes out annually in the spring. 

Since 2011, The TAP has granted awards to over 100 faculty across nearly every discipline at Temple University and saved students over one million dollars. 

Tell Us Your Textbook Affordability Story for a Chance to Win a Personal Study Room for a Whole Day!

Open Education Week
Image by Luisella Planeta Leoni from Pixabay

Textbook costs have long been a concern for students, and the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated that problem. U.S. PIRG found that 65% of students skipped buying a required textbook due to cost. A survey conducted by Temple Student Government in 2020 showed that in order to afford a textbook, 41% have worked extra hours at their job, and 14% have skipped meals.

Tell us your textbook affordability story for a chance to win a personal study room for a whole day during final exams! Submit a true story about the most money you spent on textbooks in one semester. In a paragraph, audio/video clip, graphic design, or some photos, briefly share how this expense impacted you and what that money would have gone towards if you didn’t have to pay for textbooks.

Five winners will be randomly selected from all entries. Winners may select their date and library location (Charles Library or Ginsburg Library). The study room must be used M–F, 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, May 2–May 5 or on May 8.

Deadline to submit: March 17, 2023.

Use this form to submit your story

Temple University Celebrates Open Education Week 2023

Textbook Affordability Project

Temple University Libraries is celebrating Open Education Week from February 27 to March 3, 2023. Open Education Week is an annual celebration designed to raise awareness about open educational resources and practices. 

What are Open Educational Resources and Practices? 

Open educational resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that are free to read and reuse. Examples of OER include videos, images, lab activities, homework assignments, and textbooks. Open educational practices — also known as open pedagogy — use OER to support learning and invite students to be active participants in the teaching and learning environment, engaging in knowledge creation and sharing. 

Faculty who use OER instead of a commercial textbook can help save students hundreds of dollars a semester. Faculty who use OER can revise, remix, and build upon the content created by others, customizing the material to meet the needs of their particular class. This can aid in bringing about a more culturally responsive teaching and learning experience. 


Open Education Week Events & Activities 

To mark Open Education Week, Temple University Libraries will be offering the following events and activities: 

Contest for Students 

  • Tell Us Your Textbook Affordability Story 
    Submit a true story about the most money you spent on textbooks in one semester. In a paragraph, audio/video clip, graphic design, or some photos, briefly share how this expense impacted you and what that money would have gone towards if you didn’t have to pay for textbooks. 
     
    You can win a day’s reservation to a study room in Charles Library or Ginsburg Library during final exams! Five winners will be randomly selected from all entries. Deadline to submit: March 17, 2023. 

Event for Faculty 

  • Waffle OPEN House 
    Our featured faculty event is a tasty one! You’ve heard of Waffle House. Join us on Wednesday, March 1 at Charles Library for Waffle OPEN House.  
     
    Come to Suite 375 in Charles Library between 10:00 am and 12:00 pm for waffles, pancakes, coffee, and more – along with informal discussions with our librarians about open education practices and how to incorporate them into your instructional practice.   

Online Workshops 

  • Textbook Affordability Project Application Information Session 
    Monday, February 27, 2023 | 12 pm | Register 
    Join us as we discuss the TAP grant award opportunities, application process, requirements, and answer any of your application questions. 
     
  • Using Open Educational Resources in the Classroom 
    Tuesday, February 28, 2023 | 12 pm | Register 
    In this workshop aimed at faculty and teaching graduate students, we will provide an introduction to the world of open educational resources. We’ll discuss how to find high quality OER in your discipline and show you how these materials can be customized to suit the needs of your particular class and improve student success. 
     
  • Copyright and Creative Commons 
    Tuesday, February 28, 2023 | 1 pm | Register 
    Join us as we cover the basics of Creative Commons licenses—what they are, how to find CC-licensed material, and how to license your own work. 
     
  • Sharing Your Teaching and Learning Materials with TUScholarShare 
    Wednesday, March 1, 2023 | 1 pm | Register 
    Temple’s institutional repository, TUScholarShare, provides free online access to textbooks, syllabi, slide decks, tutorials, videos and more created by faculty and staff. In this workshop, you will learn about the benefits of sharing your materials and how to make them open and freely available online to teachers and learners beyond Temple. 
     
  • How to Promote Your Open Scholarship 
    Thursday, March 2, 2023 | 12 pm | Register 
    This workshop will cover strategies how faculty can promote for promoting their open scholarship. This will cover building a scholarly profile, where to store your work, how to showcase your work on social media, and how to express this hard work in the promotion and tenure process. 

Accepting Applications for the Textbook Affordability Project Grant! 

Open Education Week is also a great time to learn more about Temple University Libraries’ Textbook Affordability Project, which provides grants ranging from $500 to $1,500 to faculty who adopt, adapt, or create free alternatives to commercial educational resources. Engaging in open educational practices, like replacing a traditional assignment with a renewable assignment, is also an option. Applications are being accepted until April 7, 2023. 

We hope you will join us for our Open Education Week events! 

Check to See if the Library Has Your Textbook

Uncategorized
“25/50 – textbooks” by THEMACGIRL* available via Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Did you know that each semester the Libraries provides a list of textbooks and other course readings that are available as ebooks? The list is based on information Temple faculty provide to the campus bookstore. These materials are free for Temple students. Use the drop-down menu to find your course and see if your etextbook is on the list!

The Libraries is not always able to purchase ebooks, as many textbook publishers do not make their titles available to libraries electronically. When a book is available to us, we prefer to purchase a multi-user license for something we know will be used in a class, though we will buy a single-user license if that is the only option. 

Since 2017, Temple University Libraries has been purchasing ebook copies of course texts whenever possible.  

Tell Your Affordable Textbook Story!

Events,

stack of textbooks
“25/50 – textbooks” by THEMACGIRL* available via Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Enter for a chance to win a day of a reserved study room during final exams!

Using your preferred medium (text, video, audio, photos, or designed graphic), tell a true story of a professor who saved you money by using free course materials or textbooks. What was the course? Who was the professor? How did that impact your learning in the class or your savings outside of it?

Five winners will be randomly selected from all entries. Winners may select their date and library location (Charles Library or Ginsburg Library). The study room must be used M–F, 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, April 26–April 29 or on May 2.

Deadline to submit: March 28, 2022.

Use this form to submit your story

Temple University Celebrates Open Education Week 2022

Events, Textbook Affordability Project

Open Education Week header logo

Temple University Libraries is celebrating Open Education Week from March 7-11, 2022. Open Education Week is an annual celebration designed to raise awareness about open educational resources and practices.

What are Open Educational Resources and Practices?

Open educational resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that are free to read and reuse. Examples of OER include videos, images, lab activities, homework assignments, and textbooks. Open educational practices — also known as open pedagogy — use OER to support learning and invite students to be active participants in the teaching and learning environment, engaging in knowledge creation and sharing.

Faculty across Temple’s schools and colleges are using OER in their classes. Faculty often assign OER in order to make their course materials more affordable for students. By choosing an open textbook instead of a commercial textbook, faculty can save students hundreds of dollars a semester. 

Another benefit for faculty is that OER are openly licensed, which means that faculty can revise, remix, and build upon the content created by others, customizing the material to meet the needs of their particular class. This can aid in bringing about a more culturally responsive teaching and learning experience.

There are many tools available to help identify OER, like the Open Textbook Library and OER Commons. Temple faculty can also use Temple’s Open and Affordable Learning Materials Inventory to see which faculty members are already using OER and other zero-cost learning materials in place of traditional commercial textbooks as well as obtain suggestions for affordable learning materials to adopt. Only Temple faculty/staff can view the Inventory; it is not available to the general public.

Open Education Week Events & Activities

To mark Open Education Week, Temple University Libraries will be offering the following virtual activities:

Contest

  • Tell Your Affordable Textbook Story
    Submit a story about a time when a professor saved you money in a course. You can win a day’s reservation to a study room in Charles Library or Ginsburg Library during final exams! Deadline to submit: March 18, 2022.

Workshops 

Accepting Applications for the Textbook Affordability Project Grant!

Open Education Week is also a great time to learn more about Temple University Libraries’ Textbook Affordability Project, which provides grants ranging from $500 to $1,500 to faculty for adopting, adapting, or creating free alternatives to commercial educational resources, in addition to exploring open educational practices. Applications are being accepted until April 8, 2022.

We hope you will join us for our Open Education Week events!

Building Bridges Toward Open Textbooks

Publishing, ,
Neon sign that says 'Open'
Image by Pexels from Pixabay

Happy Open Education Week! During this week, we celebrate and advocate for open educational resources. Open educational resources (also called OER) are defined by the Hewlett Foundation as “teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others.” In a nutshell, these are learning materials — like videos, slide decks, podcasts, worksheets, and even textbooks — that are free to access, use, share, and modify in the digital environment without copyright headaches because their creators have given others permission to do so.

Why are open educational resources so important that they are celebrated for an entire week? Their biggest appeal — for students — is they are zero or low-cost! Open textbooks especially can save students hundreds of dollars each semester. For faculty, OER is an opportunity to craft course materials that are highly relevant, current, and meaningful to their discipline. While faculty can remix and modify existing materials, there is also an opportunity for faculty to create new materials or textbooks!

North Broad Press logo

At Temple University Libraries and University Press, we’re lucky to have the North Broad Press imprint. All North Broad Press titles are scholarly works that are peer reviewed and freely available online. View a list of open textbooks in progress, and consider applying to their call for proposals for faculty-authored textbooks, which comes with a stipend of $5,000.

Cover of Bridges open textbookTo learn a little more about why Temple faculty are driven to author an open textbook, we sat down with Shawn Higgins, Academic Coordinator of the Undergraduate Bridge Program at Temple University’s Japan Campus. Shawn is the author of the brand new open textbook, Bridges: United States Academia for First-Generation and International College Students (Temple UP, 2021). This textbook was written for first generation students and English language learners to help them navigate life at United States colleges and universities.

Higgins headshotWe encourage you to listen to this 27-minute interview to learn why Shawn authored this textbook, what it was like to work with North Broad Press, and why open educational resources and open textbooks are so important to Shawn as a faculty member.

 

Listen to the entire interview or jump to a section that interests you!

  • Why write Bridges as an open textbook  [1:40]
  • Process of producing this textbook with Temple’s North Broad Press [5:58]
  • Discussion of remix elements found in the textbook [10:27]
  • Familiarity with Creative Commons prior to this project [12:12]
  • How the metaphor in the textbook’s title relates to open textbooks/open educational resources [14:14]
  • How faculty and students can use this textbook [18:34]
  • Advice to faculty who might be considering authoring an open textbook [23:40]

If you feel inspired after listening to this interview, please know that you have support here at Temple Libraries! For more information about OER, visit our Discovering Open Educational Resources guide. Contact your subject librarian if you want help locating and implementing OER in your courses. If you’re interested in writing your own open textbook, respond to the call for North Broad Press book proposals.

Don’t forget to check out Shawn’s textbook. You can read the book on your browser or device or download the book in PDF and EPUB formats. Share your thoughts about this book on social media with the hashtag: #bridgestextbook.

Temple University Celebrates Open Education Week 2021

Events, Textbook Affordability Project

Open Education Week 2021 banner

Temple University Libraries is celebrating Open Education Week March 1-5. Open Education Week is a yearly celebration designed to raise awareness about open educational resources and practices.

Open educational resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that are free to read and reuse. Examples of OER include videos, problem sets, slides, and textbooks. Open educational practices — also known as open pedagogy — use OER to support learning and invite students to be part of the teaching process, participating in the co-creation of knowledge.

At Temple, faculty across the schools and colleges are using OER in their classes. Faculty often assign OER in order to make their courses more affordable for students. By choosing an open textbook instead of a commercial textbook, for example, faculty can potentially save students hundreds of dollars a semester.

Another benefit for faculty is that OER are openly licensed, which means that faculty can revise, remix, and build upon the content, customizing the material to meet the needs of their particular class. There are many tools available to help identify OER, like the Open Textbook Library and OER Commons.

To mark Open Education Week, Temple University Libraries will be offering the following virtual activities:

Copyright and Creative Commons Licenses Workshop

  • Tuesday, March 2, 12:00-12:30PM
  • Join us as we cover the basics of Creative Commons licenses—what they are, how to find CC-licensed material, and how to license your own work. It’s simple and empowering.
  • Register at https://charlesstudy.temple.edu/calendar/workshops/cc

Finding Video for Teaching & Learning Workshop

  • Thursday, March 4, 12:00-12:30PM
  • Educational videos have become a critical part of health education, providing an important content-delivery tool in flipped, blended, and online classes. Come learn what resources are available to you through the library to use in your classroom – online or onsite. 
  • Register at https://ginsburgstudy.temple.edu/event/7301667 

Assignments that Live Beyond the Course: Student Success and Engagement through Open Pedagogy Workshop Series (co-sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Teaching)

  • Thursday, March 4, 11:00AM- 12:30PM
  • Thursday, March 11, 11:00AM-12:30PM
  • Thursday, March 18, 11:00AM-12:30PM
  • Join us for this three-part, interactive workshop where you will learn the theory of Open Pedagogy, get ideas for possible renewable activities/assignments, and put it into practice by revising one of your own assignments.
  • Register at https://catbooking.temple.edu/event/7456527

Open Education Week is also a great time to learn more about Temple University Libraries’ Textbook Affordability Project which provides grants ranging from $500 to $1500 to faculty for adopting, adapting, or creating free alternatives to commercial educational resources, in addition to exploring open pedagogical practices. Applications will be accepted in Fall 2021.

We hope you will join us for our Open Education Week events!