Partnership showcase

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.