UW Libraries Names Alternative Textbook Grant Recipients for Spring Semester

University of Wyoming Libraries recently awarded alternative textbook grants to six faculty members to implement open educational resources (OER) in their classes this spring.

The open textbooks resulting from the grants are projected to save UW students more than $26,000 per semester.

“Every semester, we see the impact that the alternative textbook grants have on cost savings for our undergraduate and graduate students,” says Cass Kvenild, associate dean of UW Libraries. “The use of OER has been shown to positively impact student success and allows our faculty greater flexibility in course design and instruction. UW Libraries is committed to providing students and faculty with the resources and services they need to succeed. This grant opportunity is just one of the ways we are working to achieve that goal.”

Grants are awarded to instructors who adopt, adapt or create new open textbooks or other course materials. Grant awards range from $1,500 to $3,000.

The grant recipients are:

College of Arts and Sciences 

-- Tracey Eckersley, an assistant lecturer in the Department of Visual Arts. Eckersley teaches “Art History Survey II” and will use existing OER materials supplemented with self-written content to replace existing textbook options. The adoption and creation of these materials will save students approximately $200 for a standard textbook for this course.

-- Tiger Robison, an assistant professor in the Department of Music. Robison teaches “Introduction to World Music” and will create a new OER text for the course. Currently, there is not a college-level textbook that caters to students of all majors. The creation of this OER text will allow Robison to teach with a text that is accessible to students from all backgrounds and majors.

-- Kaitlyn Root, an assistant lecturer in the Department of Criminal Justice and Sociology. Root teaches “Sociological Principles” and will adopt existing sociology OER materials from OpenStax for the high-enrollment introductory course.

College of Engineering and Physical Sciences 

-- Minou Rabiei, an associate professor, and Kalyan Venugopal, an associate research scientist, both in the Department of Energy and Petroleum Engineering. Rabiei and Venugopal will collaborate to create lab assignments, handouts and instructional videos using publicly available data sources and open source technologies. The OER materials will be used for hands-on labs associated with the department’s “Data Mining” course.

College of Health Sciences 

-- Sandra Leotti, an assistant professor in the Division of Social Work. Leotti teaches “Human Behavior and the Social Environment II” and will adopt existing social work OER materials, including a Creative Commons textbook and other chapters, articles, videos and online resources.

UW Libraries will award another round of grants for the 2023-24 academic year. Before submitting grant applications, applicants must attend the “OER 101” workshop Wednesday, March 1, from 1-2 p.m. The workshop will be available in person in Room 302 of Coe Library or via Zoom. Interested applicants may register for the workshop at https://uwyo.libcal.com/event/10257855. Proposals will be due Friday, March 31.

For more information, visit https://uwyo.libguides.com/oer/grants; or call Sammy Peter, chair of Research and Instruction at UW Libraries, at (307) 766-5566 or email scook13@uwyo.edu.