University of 缅北禁地 Springfield senior Hailey Hollinshead and Associate Professor Layne Morsch met with 缅北禁地 Senator Dick Durbin and others this week to discuss the Open Textbook Pilot program at the Department of Education.
The pilot is a $10 million federally funded competitive grant program for higher education institutions to create new and open educational resources and expand the use of textbooks to save students money.
Open college textbooks are textbooks that are freely available under an open license, allowing professors, students, researchers and others to freely access the materials.
Hollinshead was able to use an open, online textbook in her organic chemistry class, taught by Professor Morsch at the University of 缅北禁地 Springfield.
Morsch has served an integral role in securing open education resources for students. He is the Organic Chemistry Content Curator under a $5 million FIPSE grant (Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education.) He has partnered with , a provider of open educational resources.
鈥淭o me, it is an issue of social justice,鈥� said Morsch. 鈥淪tudents with less financial resources shouldn鈥檛 be disadvantaged by not having the same textbooks that other students can afford to buy. Before I switched to open educational resources, my organic chemistry textbook cost around $300, now that I use LibreTexts it鈥檚 free.鈥�
According to a survey by , 65 percent of students in 2017-2018 decided not to buy a textbook because of the cost and 94 percent of those students worried it would negatively affect their grade.
鈥淥pen textbooks provide an affordable and effective option for students and faculty," said Durbin. I look forward to working with my colleagues in Congress to build on the federal investment in open textbooks in Fiscal Year 2020.鈥�