For the past two years, the university’s library has worked with faculty to save students $797,893* in textbook costs. It’s happened in two ways: through the Open Textbook Initiative, which provided incentives for faculty to use a textbook available for free in the Open Textbook Library, and by employing the use of e-books whenever possible.
Several faculty members have replaced expensive publisher textbooks with open textbooks, or even authored their own. Jennie Harrop’s writing textbook is now part of the Open Textbook Library (OTL), and an open textbook by the seminary’s Nijay Gupta and some of his graduate students was also recently published and added to the OTL. A third faculty-authored open textbook is scheduled for release during the 2018-19 academic year.
In 2017-18 alone, use of open textbooks at George Fox reduced student costs by $256,231 – up from $118,855 in the program’s first year.*
We now have 24 George Fox faculty reviews on the Open Textbook Network Library (links to our faculty reviews are below). Faculty from colleges and universities around the world can browse the library and read reviews by our faculty and others to help with their decision to adopt an open textbook for their class.
In addition, students saved $226,660 by finding their required readings in the library’s e-book collection, with no limits on use. That improved upon the prior year’s total of $196,147 in savings.*
This fall the library Textbook Affordability Program will surpass $1,000,000 in student savings as the program enters its third year. In addition, funding for the program is now a permanent part of the library budget and no longer dependent on yearly grant funding.
To learn more about the library’s Textbook Affordability Program, contact the Textbook Affordability Program manager and digital learning librarian, Robin Ashford, rashford@georgefox.edu.
George Fox faculty names and their Open Textbook Library reviews published in 2017 are available in this blog post.
Faculty reviews and adoptions for 2018:
Courtney Anderegg, PhD – Assistant Professor of Communication
Text Reviewed and Adopted: Communication in the Real World: An Introduction to Communication Studies
Jill Jamison Beals, MS – Assistant Professor of Mathematics
Text Reviewed and Adopted: Introductory Statistics
Text Reviewed and Adopted: College Algebra
Carlisle Chambers, Chair, Department of Chemistry, Professor of Chemistry
Text Reviewed and Adopted: Chemistry
Kelly Chang, PhD – Professor of Psychology
Text Reviewed and Adopted (spring 2019): Together: The Science of Social Psychology
Debra Espinor, EdD – Associate Professor, School of Education
Text Reviewed and Adopted: Teaching Crowds: Learning and Social Media
Mike Foster, PhD – Chair, Department of Mechanical & Civil Engineering, Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Text Reviewed: Basics of Fluid Mechanics
Jing Hao, PhD – Assistant Professor of Chemistry
Text Reviewed and Adopted: Chemistry
Jennie Harrop, PhD, DMin – Department Chair, Assistant Professor of Professional Studies
Text Reviewed: Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking
Chris Koch, PhD – Chairperson of the Undergraduate Psychology Department, Professor of Psychology
Text Reviewed and Adopted: Research Methods in Psychology
Additional texts adopted: Introductory Statistics
Polly Peterson, MEd – Assistant Professor of English
Text Reviewed and Adopted: The Simple Math of Writing Well
Pete Rusaw, MS – Assistant Professor of Mathematics
Text Reviewed and Adopted: College Algebra
Debby Thomas, PhD – Assistant Professor of Management
Text Reviewed and Adopted: Principles of Management
Susanna Thornhill, PhD – Associate Professor, Doctor of Education Program
Text Reviewed and Adopted: Literature Reviews for Education and Nursing Graduate Students
Jeff Vargason, PhD – Associate Professor of Chemistry
Text Reviewed and Adopted: Chemistry
*Savings estimates based on enrolled students purchasing new books at full price.