Congratulations to CSU Professor of Art Dr. Kathy Curnow, who was just named 2020's Textbook Hero at the Provost's Virtual Teaching Summit today!
In Fall of 2017, Dr. Kathy Curnow received a Textbook Affordability Grant for the development of the textbook, The Bright Continent: African Art History, to be used in her ART 286 course. ART 286 is a general education course that has high enrollment every year, meaning that many students are impacted by Dr. Curnow’s project.
Dr. Curnow's student nominator said, "She used her own textbook that was free and online and went extremely well with the course content. It provided access to all and was well suited for the course, as well as interactive and engaging. She clearly put a lot of effort into the textbook and it is very informative and comprehensive. She cares about not having her students pay hefty prices for books."
Dr. Curnow accomplished the impressive feat of creating an openly licensed art textbook by working closely with the library and using many of her own images. Her hard work and dedication to student success made her a perfect choice for the 2020 Textbook Hero Award.
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.
