OER Grant champions

Removing barriers to education has always been a goal. One of the major hurdles for my students was the cost of textbooks. I began by transitioning to "recommending" books rather than requiring them, but I'm very happy to know about all the Open Educational Resources that are available out there. I will ramp up my transition to using these materials in all of my classes now.

Benjamin Birkinbine

Associate Professor

Journalism

Portrait of Associate Professor Benjamin Birkinbine.

As Cable Green made clear, with the rising cost of education, helping students save money for the same materials benefits everyone involved. I considered the classes I teach and realized that I could find nearly every single reading and viewing online or in the library, and with a little preparation on my part, could really make a difference for my students.

Angela Chase

Instructor

Core Humanities

Portrait of Angela Chase.

"One of the biggest struggles and stressors when beginning a new semester is allocating/hunting down every single book you need for the start of the semester. Professor Chase alleviated much of my stress by choosing to have the vast majority of our books online. I honestly cannot think of a single negative outcome to this process. There is no losing a text, bringing the wrong text to class and more importantly getting placed on a wait list for the book while you fall weeks behind anticipating its arrival."

- Kirstoffer Garlitz
Core Humanities student

…It’s increasingly clear that $300-$400 in textbooks is too high a cost for students to bear, even for four semesters’ worth of courses. It’s a sad irony because upper-division coursework in a world languages discipline is typically associated with much lower textbook costs.

Erin Edgington

Assistant Professor and Chair of World Languages

World Languages and Literatures

Portrait of Assistant Professor and Chair of World Languages Erin Edgington.

First OER Faculty Professional Development Grant Cohort

Shannon Taylor
Associate Professor
Education

Prisca Gayles
Assistant Professor
GRI

Nicole Garlic
Lecturer II
Criminal Justice

Jennifer McClendon
Associate Professor
HDFSC

Bob Ives
Associate Professor
Education

Brittany Avila
TA Professor
Psychology

Lois Ritter
TA Professor
Public Health

Hyun-Joo Jeon
Professor
HDFSC

Second OER Faculty Professional Development Grant Cohort

Hyun-Joo Jeon
Professor
HDFSC

Jodie Barker
TA Professor
French

Ben Birkinbine
Associate Professor
Journalism

Elena Shimanskaya
Assistant Professor
French

Catherine Gonzalez
Lecturer II
Nursing

Patrick File
Associate Professor
Journalism

Erin Edgington
Assistant Professor
French (Chair of World Languages)