College Faculty Take the Lead in Developing Open Education Resources

infoneer-pulse:

The average college student now spends $1,000 annually on books and supplies, and growing numbers of universities are finally getting serious about student complaints over the cost of course materials. But at schools that are open to the idea of adopting free or low-cost alternatives to $200 textbooks, concerns about the quality and variety of electronic materials already on the market can be a major hurdle. To address that problem, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst recently launched the Open Education Initiative, which will award grants to faculty members seeking to develop low- or no-cost course materials as an alternative to traditional textbooks.

This year, UMass awarded eight faculty members a total of $10,000 in grants to develop their own course materials. Charles Schweik, an environmental conservation professor who says he participated because he believes “in the importance of attainable resources,” published his own scholarly work in an open-access format. Schweik’s students can now read his coursepack for free online, or they can print a copy for $13.

» via GOOD

Source: infoneer-pulse

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  1. webfocuspinas reblogged this from infoneer-pulse
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  5. marksbirch reblogged this from infoneer-pulse and added:
    Bringing some innovation to disrupt the college textbook mafia, I applaud what the University of Massachusetts is doing...
  6. idol-hands said: Great, now can we get this going on with dentistry?
  7. infoneer-pulse posted this