| Overall Rating | Gold |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 72.00 |
| Liaison | Jessica Krejcik |
| Submission Date | Dec. 22, 2021 |
Concordia University
IN-41: Textbook Affordability
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
0.50 / 0.50 |
Cassandra
Lamontagne Sustainability Coordinator Office of Sustainability |
Does the institution host a peer-to-peer textbook exchange program, textbook lending library, or alternate textbook project?:
A brief description of the textbook exchange program, textbook lending library, or alternate textbook project:
The Concordia library is involved in an alternative textbook exchange project. In 2019, the Library Services Fund Committee (LSFC) made the decision to support the adoption of open educational resources (OER), specifically open textbooks. In 2020, the amount of $44,562 was spent on several grants for faculty members to create, adapt, or adopt open textbooks. These grants are used to hire students to assist faculty in their OER project. An additional commitment of $69,866 was set aside to support ongoing open textbook adoption/development. To date, 14 grants have been awarded to Concordia professors as part of this project, and 4 open textbooks are already in use for courses in a variety of disciplines. In 2018, the Library hired an Open Educational Resources Librarian to help support this initiative (using Library funds and not LSF).
https://library.concordia.ca/about/lsf/reports/LSFC_annual_report_2020.pdf
In 2021, the Library Services Fund Committee created the Textbook Bursary Program to support students facing financial challenges. The bursary program, which ran from January 11 to February 11, aimed to offset the cost of textbooks or e-textbooks by providing a one-time assistance of $250 to purchase them. The program awarded 400 bursaries.https://www.concordia.ca/content/dam/concordia/offices/faao/docs/UgradAwardBulletins/2021-01-15_AppLibraryServicesFundCommitteeTextbookBursary.pdf
Does the institution provide incentives for academic staff that explicitly encourage the authorship, peer review, and/or adoption of open access textbooks?:
A brief description of the incentives to encourage the authorship, peer review, and/or adoption of open access textbooks:
Concordia University is pleased to offer a grant aimed at encouraging the adoption, customization, or creation of open textbooks, and open educational resources (OER) more generally. OER include textbooks and other learning materials that are freely available to use, copy, modify and share, and significantly reduce costs of course materials for students. Part of Concordia’s Digital Strategy and funded by the Library Services Fund, the Concordia University Library, in collaboration with the Centre for Teaching and Learning and eConcordia, invites proposals that will result in the use of open textbooks in Concordia courses. The grants provide funding to faculty members to support the work involved in identifying, customizing or creating open textbooks, and in revising course content as a result of incorporating a new textbook.
Website URL where information about the textbook affordability incentives is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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