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These faculty and instructors were awarded a Partnership for Affordable Content grant to move away from traditional textbooks to using low-cost and no-cost resources in their courses. Read on to find out more about their projects and learn how they successfully lowered the cost of education for their students.

Bodong Chen
Department: CEHD: Curriculum and Instruction
Course: CI 8134 & 8135: Foundations of Research I (Fall) & II (Spring)
Project: Created a Data Camp site to help students learn statistical methods, and used Unizin Engage for online readings.
Total Savings: $18,875 (151 students x $125 textbook)

Irene Duranczyk
Department: CEHD: PSTL
Course: PSTL 1004 Statistics: Understanding and Applying Data
Project: Modified and enhanced an already existing open textbook, Collaborative Statistics Using Spreadsheets
Total Savings: $10,370 (61 students x $170 textbook)

Darrin England
Department: CSE: Industrial and Systems Engineering
Course: IE1101: Introduction to Industrial and Systems Engineering
Project:Created a digital course pack using library licensed and openly licensed content.
Total Savings: $76,800 (256 students x $30 textbook)

Joe Gaugler
Department: School of Nursing: Adult and Gerontological Health
Course: NURS 1910W: Illness in the U.S. - From Cell to Society
Project: Created a Digital Course Pack using library licensed materials, freely available course readings, and fair use claims at $0 cost to students.
Total Savings: $1,558 (19 students x $82 textbook)

Bo Hu
Department: CFANS: Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering
Course: BBE 2002: Introduction to Engineering Design
Project: Created a Digital Course Pack using library licensed materials.
Total Savings: $4,500 (45 students x $100 textbook)


Kathleen Hansen and Nora Paul
Department: CLA: Journalism and Mass Communication
Course: JOUR 3004: Introduction to Mass Communication
Project: Created a freely available, open textbook called Information Strategies for Communicators.
Total Savings: $74,250 (1350 students x $55 textbook)

Nathaniel Helwig
Department: CLA: Department of Psychology and School of Statistics
Course: STAT 5601: Nonparametric Methods
Project: The Libraries purchased the course textbook as a multi-user ebook and created a Digital Course Pack using library licensed materials, freely available course readings at $0 cost to students.
Total Savings: $52,578 (207 students x $254 for 2 textbooks)

Sungok Hong
Department: CLA: Asian Languages and Literature
Course: HNUR 1005: Conversational Hindi-Urdu
Project: Faculty created course content plus use of freely available video content. Google Sites was used to make all materials available to students.
Total Savings: $300 (10 students x $30 comparable language textbook - no text available)

Yuhei Inoue
Department: CEHD: School of Kinesiology
Course: SMGT 3601 - Ethics and Values in Sport
Project: Created a Digital Course Pack using library licensed materials, freely available course readings, and fair use claims at $0 cost to students.
Total Savings: $15,150. Over 900 students impacted.

Yuhong Jiang
Department: CLA: Psychology
Course: PSY 3051 - Introduction to Cognitive Psychology and PSY 5960 - Topics in Psychology
Project: Created a Digital Course Pack Digital of library licensed content with quiz questions created for each reading
Total Savings: $10,080 (288 students X $35 textbook)

Romas Kazlauskas
Department: CBS: Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics
Course: BioC 4351/5351 Protein Engineering
Project: Created 30 openly licensed, interactive chemical figures using the CDF format from Wolfram.
Total Savings: Not available.

David Lilja
Department: CSE: Electrical and Computer Engineering
Course: EE5490: Special Topics in Electrical and Computer Engineering and EE 5373: Data Modeling Using R
Project: Faculty created open textbook released in Spring 2017 called Linear Regression Using R: An Introduction to Data Modeling.
Total Savings: $2,680 (67 students x $40 average textbook cost)

Steven Manson
Department: CLA: Geography
Course: Geography 1502: Mapping Our World
Project: Faculty created course content to be released as an open textbook in Spring 2016
Total Savings: $205,800 (2,058 students x $100 average textbook cost)

Robin Murie
Department: CCE: MN English Language Program
Course: ESL 3001: Integrated Skills for Academic English
Project: Adopted an open textbook, College Success, created course materials, and utilized freely available videos and other course readings.
Total Savings: $450 (18 estimated students x $25 textbook)


Cheryl Olman and Steve Engel
Department: CLA: Psychology
Course: PSY 3031: Introduction to Sensation and Perception
Project: Adopted two open textbooks, Anatomy and Physiology and Psychology, and used library licensed materials and other freely available materials on the web. Created a Digital Course Pack to bring all resources together and integrate into Moodle.
Total Savings: $154,120 (928 students x $165)

Rebecca Swenson
Department: CFANS: Agricultural Education
Course: AFEE 2421 – Professional Communication for Agriculture, Food and the Environment
Project: Created a Digital Course Pack and made use of a wide variety of freely available, open content.
Total Savings: $74,560 (466 students x $160)

Kaisa Taipale
Department: CSE: Mathematics
Course: FM 5001, FM 5002: Preparation for Financial Mathematics
Project: Authored a new open textbook Mathematical Preparation for Finance
Total Savings: $3,150 (63 students x ~$500)

Elizabeth Wattenberg
Department: School of Public Health
Course: PUBH 3104 - Environmental Health Effects: Introduction to Toxicology and PUBH 6104 - Principles of Toxicology
Project: Created a Digital Course Pack using library licensed materials, freely available course readings, and fair use claims at $0 cost to students.
Total Savings: Total Savings: $13,590 (151 students x $90 textbook)

Mike Weimerskirch
Department: CSE: Mathematics
Course: MATH 1031, Math 1051, and MATH 1151
Project: Created a freely available video textbook.
Total Savings: $264,000 across multiple courses. Additional $500,000 in placement exam cost savings.

Diane Wiese-Bjornstal
Department: CEHD: Kinesiology
Course: KIN 3126W, KIN 3136, and KIN 5723
Project: Created a digital course pack using library licensed materials and used library ebooks for 2 courses
Total Savings: `$23,000 across multiple courses. Over 350 students impacted.