Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 74.78
Liaison Daryl Pierson
Submission Date March 5, 2021

STARS v2.2

Portland State University
IN-41: Textbook Affordability

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.50 / 0.50 Amanda Wolf
Program + Assessment Coordinator
Campus Sustainability Office
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution host a peer-to-peer textbook exchange program, textbook lending library, or alternate textbook project?:
Yes

A brief description of the textbook exchange program, textbook lending library, or alternate textbook project:

PSU also operates PDXOpen, which is an open access textbook publishing program managed by the University Library.

PSU was chosen to partner with OpenStax — a nonprofit ed-tech initiative at Rice University that provides open-licensed online textbooks. Open educational resources, including the free, peer-reviewed online textbooks offered by OpenStax, eliminate cost barriers for students and allow unrestricted, immediate access to learning materials, increasing the likelihood for students to complete their courses successfully.


Does the institution provide incentives for academic staff that explicitly encourage the authorship, peer review, and/or adoption of open access textbooks?:
Yes

A brief description of the incentives to encourage the authorship, peer review, and/or adoption of open access textbooks:

PSU faculty can get involved in OpenStax by redesigning courses to replace high cost course materials with Open Education Resources (OER), participating in Open Education learning communities, or authoring open-access textbooks. Further, colleges will receive individualized consulting from OpenStax and join a cohort of schools advocating widespread use of OER at their schools.

PSU operates the PDXOpen program, which is an open access textbook publishing program. Faculty could apply for $2,500 grants to develop their own open-access textbook. The OpenStax partnership will also help refine and boost access.

In FY18, OER offered through the library saved PSU students almost $400,000 in textbook costs. In FY19, those savings increased to more than $634,000 with about 8,000 students utilizing the program.


Website URL where information about the textbook affordability incentives is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

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