Congratulations to Textbook Hero award winner Dr. Elia Iafelice

Congratulations to CSU Professor Elia Iafelice, who was named

2022's Textbook Hero at the Provost's Virtual Teaching Summit yesterday!

Professor Elia Iafelice was a recipient of a Textbook Affordability Grant through the Michael Schwartz Library in Fall of 2019. You can learn more about her impressions of that experience on our Affordability Advocates website.

Her student nominator said: "Having a free textbook alleviated the financial burden of buying expensive textbooks and allowed for everyone to be able to use the same textbook regardless of financial and socioeconomic status."

Her hard work and dedication to student success made her a perfect choice for the 2022 Textbook Hero Award.

Course: ITN 101/102 - Italian I and II
OER used: Spunti: Italiano Elementare 1 & 2
Annual student savings: $10,000

Co-sponsored by the Michael Schwartz Library and the Student Government Association, the Textbook Hero Award is awarded annually to encourage and reward faculty for their work to reduce textbook costs for CSU students. The criteria for this award include:

• Amount of effort needed and spent to replace a traditional textbook with a low-cost or open alternative
• Impact of that replacement on textbook costs, classroom engagement, and student achievement.

We applaud our faculty who are supporting open pedagogy and student success
by considering and using openly licensed materials in the classroom.

Together, we have saved CSU students over a million dollars in textbook costs.