| Overall Rating | Gold |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 65.28 |
| Liaison | Ciara Tennis |
| Submission Date | Nov. 3, 2022 |
Eastern Connecticut State University
IN-41: Textbook Affordability
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
0.50 / 0.50 |
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 Eastern chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, the international English honor society, hosts a Book Swap and Sale every semester, where students leave a book and take a book or purchase books for $1 each. The majority of the selection is textbooks and required books for courses, allowing students to access and share textbooks at little to no cost.
https://www.easternct.edu/english/_documents/keep-eng-in-touch-spring-2020.pdf See p. 8 for information on the Sigma Tau Delta Book Swap and Sale.
For more information on the Eastern chapter of Sigma Tau Delta: https://www.easternct.edu/english/student-opportunities/sigmataudelta.html
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:
Faculty have been working to provide more Open Education Resources since 2019, when three Eastern professors received a Connecticut State Colleges & Universities (CSCU) grant to develop and support Open Education Resources (OER) strategies in their classrooms to reduce the overall cost of textbooks. Plans to broaden OER across the CSCU-system and at Eastern continued and were amplified by the pandemic.
Eastern's Open Educational Resources Library Guide can be found here: https://easternct.libguides.com/sb.php?subject_id=160583
Articles on Eastern's OER efforts can be found here:
https://www.easternct.edu/news/_stories-and-releases/2019/08-august/faculty-cut-textbook-expenses-with-open-education-resources.html
https://www.easternct.edu/news/_stories-and-releases/2020/02-february/open-education-resources-alternative-learning-sources-for-students.html
https://www.easternct.edu/news/_stories-and-releases/2021/01-january/open-educational-resources-lighten-financial-burden-for-students.html
https://www.easternct.edu/news/_stories-and-releases/2022/03-march/students-share-perspectives-on-open-pedagogy.html
Information on CSCU Open Educational Resources can be found here: https://www.ct.edu/oer
https://nebhe.org/journal/opencscu-and-the-evolution-of-open-communications-in-connecticut-state-colleges-universities/
OpenCSCU, a resource to support the adoption and creation of Open Educational Resources (OER) and the implementation of Open Practices throughout the CSCU system, can be found here: https://cscu.libguides.com/
Connecticut Open Educational Resources Coordinating Council 2021 Legislative Report, which was shared with all faculty and staff at Eastern, can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1alDCc4-0AtbbjCAbgR5DeyxvFWEz9wLJ/view
On Wednesday, February 16th, 2022, during the University Hour, Kevin Corcoran (Associate Vice President of Digital Learning, Academic & Student Affairs, Connecticut State Colleges & Universities) and Douglas Casey (Connecticut Commission for Educational Technology Executive Director) discussed Open Educational Resources and GoOpenCT – A Connecticut k20 Initiative (see attached file).
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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