MSL buzz: the Michael Schwartz Library blog

WHO ARE YOUR HEROES? NOMINATE THEM FOR A TEXTBOOK HERO AWARD!

Co-sponsored by the Michael Schwartz Library and the Student Government Association, the Textbook Hero Award is awarded annually to a faculty member who has put forth significant effort to replace a traditional textbook with a low-cost or open alternative, and whose efforts had a high impact on textbook costs, classroom engagement, and student achievement.

STUDENTS: Do your professors consider the costs of your course materials when they choose them? So many CSU faculty do, and to all of them, CSU students say THANK YOU!  Nominate your prof today, and help us encourage others to get on the bandwagon.  We've already saved CSU students $1.7M in texbook costs!

FACULTY: If you are an affordability advocate, please encourage your students to nominate you for a Textbook Hero Award!  This teaching award is presented by the CSU Student Government Association and can be a valuable addition to your promotion and tenure portfolio.  Give your students a chance to formally say thank you! 
 

Textbook Hero Award Application, due April 5th, 2024:
 Nominate Your Hero Now!

Announcing our Fall 2022 Textbook Affordability Small Grants for Faculty

Textbook Affordability Grants are offered through the Michael Schwartz Library to encourage and support the creation or compilation of low-cost or no-cost course materials. Faculty whose projects are selected will receive grant amounts ranging from $500 to $2500 depending on the project. Appropriate support to create or compile an open educational textbook or other educational resources to replace a traditional, high-cost textbook will be provided by the Michael Schwartz Library, the Center for eLearning, the Center for Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, and the Center for Faculty Excellence. Five awards are available.

The deadline to complete the Intent to Submit Form is October 31, 2022

The deadline to submit the Textbook Affordability Grant Application is December 2, 2022

The goal of the grant is to encourage and support adoption of openly licensed course materials in order to save students money and encourage student-centered pedagogy. Since 2016, our Textbook Affordability Grants have saved CSU students over a million dollars.
 

Congratulations to faculty who were awarded Textbook Affordability Grants last year:

• Todd Morgan, Assistant Professor, Management Department, for his MGT 443/543 classes.
• Peter Manos, Professor, History Department, for his HIS 111 classes.
• Kelly Wrenhaven, Associate Professor of Classics/Director of Classical Studies, History department for her HIS 330 classes.
• Vania de Paoli, Senior Lecturer, Chemistry Department, for her CHM 331 classes.
• Yuchen Liu, Visiting Assistant Professor, Communication Department, for her COM 227 classes.

The Michael Schwartz Library is committed to empowering students and faculty by providing access to resources in support of research and teaching. As an integral part of the University's mission to provide accessible, affordable, and Engaged Learning opportunities, we support the development of open educational resources and work to promote equitable access to education for all.

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.

WHO ARE YOUR HEROES? NOMINATE THEM FOR A 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.

STUDENTS: Do your professors consider the costs of your course materials when they choose them? So many CSU faculty do, and to all of them, CSU students say THANK YOU!  Nominate your prof today, and help us encourage others to get on the bandwagon.  We've already saved you over a million dollars!

FACULTY: If you are an affordability advocate, please encourage your students to nominate you for a Textbook Hero Award!  This teaching award is presented by the CSU Student Government Association and can be a valuable addition to your promotion and tenure portfolio.  Give your students a chance to formally say thank you! 
 

Textbook Hero Award Application, due April 12th, 2022:
 Nominate Your Hero Now!

** Deadline Extended to Friday, April 15th **

Faculty:  Plan Now to Participate in the 2022 Textbook Affordability Summer Symposium!

• Are you interested in reducing the cost and increasing ease of access for your course materials, but you’re unsure where to start?   

• Are you curious what people mean when they talk about open education or open textbooks? 

• Do you find it difficult to change textbooks because you work with a team of instructors to teach a high enrollment course?   

If you answered yes to any of these questions, consider applying for CSU’s Textbook Affordability Summer Symposium! Participants will receive a $600 stipend.  

• What: a program to help faculty consider and use openly-licensed or other affordable course content  

• When: May 20th – June 13th; asynchronous; 4-6 hours of work   

• Where: Blackboard  

• Who: Any full-time or part-time CSU faculty are welcome to apply  

• How: Fill out our application form by April 15th 

How does the program work?  

• Step One: By April 11th, complete and submit your application form and submit the syllabus for the course in which you are interested in using an OER.  
• Step Two: If you are selected to participate, CSU Librarians will review your syllabus and map suggested openly-licensed, affordable, or library-licensed content to syllabus topics.   
• Step Three: From May 20th – June 13th, participants will engage in the Textbook Affordability Summer Symposium on Blackboard/Zoom. Participants will explore the basics of open education, review an open access or low cost resource, learn how to align course content with learning outcomes, and reflect on advocating for affordable or open access course materials in the future. There are four modules of content, each of which should take 1-2 hours to complete.  

As part of the training, each participant will:  

• Attend at least one synchronous Zoom discussion session (out of 2-3 options) 

• Review at least one openly-licensed, library-licensed, or low-cost resource in their discipline (preferably one found in the Open Textbook Library) by June 13th, 2022.  

• Create a curriculum map to align the open access or low cost resource to their course 

• Write a short report outlining how they will take action to implement the use of the openly licensed content across all sections/semesters of the course in their department  

Step Four: After the training, each participant will:  

• Use at least one openly-licensed, library-licensed, or low-cost resource (required or optional) in a course they are teaching in Fall 2022 or Spring 2023 OR create and use openly licensed ancillary materials (e.g., quiz questions, PowerPoint slides, etc.) for a course they are teaching in Fall 2022 or Spring 2023 

• Speak at a future open textbook workshop or talk offered by the Center for Faculty Excellence, Michael Schwartz Library, or other institution, if approved  

Each participant will receive a $600 stipend for participating in the symposium.   

The following applicants will receive special consideration:  

• Multiple faculty teaching the same course  

• Faculty teaching high enrollment courses or gateway courses  

Faculty who have already received a Textbook Affordability Grant or participated in a previous Textbook Affordability Summer Symposium will not be eligible to participate, but participants in the Summer Symposium are eligible and encouraged to apply for future Textbook Affordability grants.  

See what past participants have to say about their experiences in the program. 

APPLICATION FORM 

Do you consider the costs of your course materials when you choose them?
So many CSU faculty do, and to all of you, CSU students say THANK YOU! 

“I love you for this :)” 

“Thank you so much! It is very helpful!” 

“Thank you for being so considerate and understanding! You rock! :)” 

“Thank you for using a free book! My pockets appreciate it! <3” 

“Means a lot since money is always tight” 

“We appreciate you! Spread the word to your colleagues!” 

 If you are an affordability advocate, please encourage your students to nominate you for a Textbook Hero Award! This teaching award is presented by the CSU Student Government Association and can be a valuable addition to your promotion and tenure portfolio. Give your students a chance to formally say thank you! 

Meet our previous Textbook Heroes! 

Open Education Week, Day 2:  Join us today at 3pm for a Publishing Panel event!  

Let’s Talk Open Textbooks: Author Q&A  

• Tuesday, March 8th, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM  

• Registration  

• Please join us for a Zoom virtual panel where authors will discuss their experiences with creating and using their own open textbooks. Panelists will include Patty Stoddard Dare, professor in the School of Social Work, Kelly Wrenhaven, professor in the History Department, April Yorke, CSU professor in the School of Health Sciences, and Abdullah Oguz, former lecturer in Information Systems and current Assistant Professor of Management Information Systems at the School of Business in Central Connecticut State University (CCSU). Join us to discover the benefits of authoring your own open textbook! 

ABOUT OUR PANELISTS

Dr. Abdullah Oguz has been working as an Assistant Professor of Management Information Systems at the School of Business in Central Connecticut State University (CCSU). Before CCSU, he worked as a visiting lecturer in Monte Ahuja College of Business at Cleveland State University for one and a half years. Dr. Oguz graduated from the Ph.D. program in Information Systems at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) in 2020. His Ph.D. dissertation is "Workplace Cyberbullying in Global Virtual Teams". Before starting his Ph.D. program, he had worked at the Turkish Customs Administration for 12 years as a member of the Project Management Office. He planned and managed national and EU-funded projects with a view to enhancing the law enforcement capacity of the administration. He has been a Project Management Professional (PMP®) credential holder since 2014. Abdullah’s book, Project Management: Navigating the Complexity with a Systematic Approach, is the first book that MSL Academic Endeavors, the Michael Schwartz Library’s press, has undergone complete pre-publication peer review. 

Dr. Patricia Stoddard Dare, MSW, PhD is a Professor in the School of Social Work, Director of Women's and Gender Studies, and the Co-Coordinator of CSU's Chemical Dependency Counseling Certificate Program.  She has spent the last two years representing Cleveland State University on a Practitioner Education grant funded by SAMHSA and the Council on Social Work Education which brought together Social Work faculty from around the US to develop model social work curricular resources to teach substance use disorder counseling. Patty’s book, Introduction to Substance Use Disorders, is an excellent example of an open textbook that builds on the openly licensed work of others. 

Dr. Kelly Wrenhaven is an Associate Professor of Classics in the Department of History and the Director of Classical Studies. She holds degrees from the University of St Andrews (Ph.D), the University of Cambridge (M.Phil.), and the University of British Columbia (BA, MA). Before coming to Cleveland State, she taught at St Andrews, Trinity College Dublin, and the University of Victoria. Her research interests include ancient Greek slavery, the construction of civic and cultural identity through opposition, perceptions of the body, especially Greek ideas of beauty and ugliness and perceived differences between slave and free bodies, and perceptions of sexuality and prostitution. She has taught many aspects of ancient Greek and Roman civilizations and has published on a variety of topics. Her first book, Reconstructing the Slave (Bristol Classical Press), examines how the Greeks used literary, lexical, and artistic images of slaves to justify, naturalize, and perpetuate the institution of slavery in classical Greece. More recent publications include a comparative study of Greek comic slaves and blackface minstrels. Her current research examines the relationship between sexual obscenity and the “Other” (i.e. women, slaves, and barbarians) in Greek literature and art. Kelly has co-authored the book, Ancient World History to 1300 C.E., and authored the book, Greek Gods, Heroes, and Worship, allowing her to share her interesting experiences with co-authorship and the Pressbooks platform. 

Dr. April M. Yorke, PhD, CCC-SLP has been an Assistant Professor in the Speech and Hearing Program, School of Health Sciences since 2016.  Dr. Yorke teaches courses in Phonetics, Speech Sound Disorders, and Augmentative and Alternative Communication. April began her life's journey of working with individuals with severe disabilities in 1995-- working with this population in a variety of school, community, and medical settings through her undergraduate years. These phenomenal experiences lead April to Penn State University for her MS Program where she received highly specialized training as part of an Augmentative and Alternative Communication Training Grant from the US Dept. of Education. After receiving her MS, April served as a speech-language pathologist and augmentative communication / assistive technology specialist in the schools and at a post-acute brain injury rehab for 9 years. April then returned to Penn State University again for her PhD program and began a new journey as a researcher, creating the next generation interventions to improve literacy outcomes for individuals with complex communication needs.  She couldn't be happier with her path. April’s book, Phonetics Workbook for Students of Communication Sciences and Disorders, has been downloaded thousands of times, and provides a good example of the value of self-authored ancillary materials. April loves to create high-quality materials that are tailored to the needs of her class. And, as she would say it, "No student should have to choose between buying a book for my class and buying groceries." 

Open Education week is an annual international celebration of the power of open education to improve student learning, faculty flexibility, and access to education. We’re taking this opportunity to highlight some of our Affordability @ CSU initiatives! 

The Michael Schwartz Library, together with our CSU faculty and many other campus stakeholders have worked hard to make learning more affordable for students, and our efforts have paid off - literally!

If you’re curious about your CSU faculty colleagues’ experiences getting support to adopt affordable and/or openly-licensed course materials, you can hear some of their their thoughts in the video below.

Are you using Open Educational Resources or other free or library-licensed content in your class?
Have you taken other steps to reduce costs for students? We want to know about it! Let us know by filling out this quick form.

More information the Affordable Learning @ CSU initiative can be found at https://library.csuohio.edu/affordable-learning/. Thank you to all of our affordability advocates across campus, and happy Open Education Week! 

Announcing our Spring 2022 Textbook Affordability Small Grants

Textbook Affordability Grants are offered through the Michael Schwartz Library to encourage and support the creation or compilation of low-cost or no-cost course materials. Faculty whose projects are selected will receive a $1,000 grant. Appropriate support to create or compile an open educational textbook or other educational resources to replace a traditional, high-cost textbook will be provided by the Michael Schwartz Library, the Center for eLearning, the Center for Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, and the Center for Faculty Excellence. Five awards are available.
 

The deadline to complete the Intent to Submit Form is April 8th

The deadline to submit the Textbook Affordability Grant Application is April 28th

The goal of the grant is to encourage and support adoption of openly licensed course materials in order to save students money and encourage student-centered pedagogy. Since 2016, our Textbook Affordability Grants have already saved CSU students over $900,000.

Congratulations to faculty who were awarded the fall 2021 Textbook Affordability Grants

• Todd Morgan, Assistant Professor, Management Department, for his MGT 443/543 classes.
• Peter Manos, Professor, History Department, for his HIS 111 class

Could you use some structured time to write and receive feedback from colleagues?
Do you wish you could graduate with some published academic writing under your belt?
Do you have some academic writing that needs polishing to become publishable?
If so, this writing club is for you!
 

Offered by the Writing Center and the Michael Schwartz Library, this writing club is meant to help students and faculty improve their academic writing productivity. Each week we will send a short video and provide resources and advice related to an academic writing topic, and we'll have a synchronous Zoom meeting to review the topic. At least 30 minutes of the meeting time will be set aside for quiet writing to keep you on track! This Spring 2022 semester the weekly 5-minute videos will concern content from three books: How to Write a Lot by Paul Silvia, Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande, and Art and Artist by Otto Rank. You don’t need to have read the books to participate, but they will guide our discussions.

Meetings will occur in Zoom from 3 - 4pm on Wednesdays beginning Jan 26 and ending May 4.
SIGN UP FORM
 

Filling out the sign-up form does not obligate you to participate or attend every meeting; it merely puts you on our reminder email list and provides access to the Zoom link each week. However, you will experience the biggest writing productivity boost if you attend Zoom meetings with us!

Please feel free to share with classmates or colleagues who would like to make some progress on publishing.

Please note that this writing club will be especially useful to graduate students and faculty in the humanities or social sciences. Undergraduates who have some academic writing to develop into a published article are welcome to participate. 

A New Open Educational Resource from CSU!

Understanding Literacy in Our Lives: First-Year Writing Perspective 

Edited by Dr. Julie Townsend 

Dr. Julie Townsend, a 2021 Textbook Affordability Grant Recipient, has just published Understanding Literacy in Our Lives: First-Year Writing Perspective. 

This collection of texts aims at making writing studies and New Literacy Studies accessible and relevant to first-year writers across all disciplines. Writers with different experience levels and a wide range of goals will benefit from learning how to study reading, writing, communication, literacy, and education with the tools available from the discipline of writing. The essays contained in this text are strong examples of first-year writers investigating a wide range of contexts to better understand the literacies that make up their lives. 

Dr. Townsend will use this freely available Open Educational Resource in her English 102, College Writing II classes.  Congratulations Dr. Townsend!  

Dr. Julie Townsend has been an Assistant Lecturer in the CSU’s English Department since 2019.    

Find the new book in EngagedScholarship @ Cleveland State University at  https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/msl_ae_ebooks/27/

Faculty: there's still time to apply for this semester's textbook affordability grant - we've extended the deadline until December 10th.

You could be a hero!  Find, adopt, or adapt an existing open educational textbook or other educational resources to replace a traditional, high-cost textbook. Or create new open content to bridge gaps in available resources. Support will be provided by the Michael Schwartz Library, the Center for eLearning, and the Center for Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, and the Center for Faculty Excellence. Five awards are available.

ABOUT OPEN TEXTBOOKS

Open Textbooks are a type of open educational resource, are full, often peer reviewed, textbooks licensed to be freely used, edited, and distributed. Increasingly, faculty members all across the country are adopting open textbooks as one way to address the crisis of textbook affordability. Visit the Open Textbook Library to peruse peer-reviewed textbooks and decide if one of them is right for your course, or send your syllabus to your personal librarian to map your current materials to openly-licensed content for you to consider. Successful applicants will receive support from a team of librarians and instructional designers who will help you adopt or adapt openly-licensed material for your use.

Deadline Extended: Applications are due December 10th

The Michael Schwartz Library, in collaboration with the Center for eLearning, Center for Instructional Technology and Distance Learning (CITDL), and the Center for Faculty Excellence, is sponsoring another Textbook Affordability Small Grant to help support faculty who are willing to adopt/adapt an open textbook for a class. Grant applications are due December 10th, 2021.

Grant Overview

Grant Application (PDF)

ABOUT OPEN TEXTBOOKS

Open Textbooks are a type of open educational resource, are full, often peer reviewed, textbooks licensed to be freely used, edited, and distributed. Increasingly, faculty members all across the country are adopting open textbooks as one way to address the crisis of textbook affordability. Visit the Open Textbook Library to peruse peer-reviewed textbooks and decide if one of them is right for your course, or send your syllabus to your personal librarian to map your current materials to openly-licensed content for you to consider. Successful applicants will receive support from a team of librarians and instructional designers who will help you adopt or adapt openly-licensed material for your use.

Visit the Affordable Learning site, call 216-875-9734 or contact your personal librarian for more information.
Affordable Learning @ Cleveland State University: making higher education more affordable for students, together.

CSU Faculty:  Drop in on Friday, November 12th and reimagine an assignment!

The Michael Schwartz Library is partnering with the Cleveland Teaching Collaborative, Center for eLearning, Center for Faculty Excellence, Center for Instructional Technology + Distance Learning, & DigitalCSU to offer regular Assignment Design Café hours for instructors every 2nd Friday of the month during 2021-2022 via Zoom.  Drop in and chat with a facilitator.

What to Expect

• Drop in any time between 11 & 12. No appointment needed.
• Provide a description of the assignment & existing instructions/rubrics.
• Facilitators will help brainstorm adaptations of the assignment for remote, hybrid, or in-person learning
• Leave the café with a plan for your assignment

Zoom Link: https://tinyurl.com/CTCassignmentcafe

Next Cafe:  Friday, November 12 at 11:00am to 12:00pm

Mark Your Calendar:

Friday, December 10 at 11:00am to 12:00pm
Friday, January 14, 2022 at 11:00am to 12:00pm
Friday, February 11, 2022 at 11:00am to 12:00pm
Friday, March 11, 2022 at 11:00am to 12:00pm
Friday, April 8, 2022 at 11:00am to 12:00pm
Friday, May 13, 2022 at 11:00am to 12:00pm

We’re celebrating International Open Access Week at Cleveland State beginning October 25. This year’s theme is It Matters How We Open Knowledge: Building Structural Equity. Visit the Open Access information table: What is Open Access? and the OpenStax Exhibit in the Library all week for free resources that can benefit you. Review the full schedule of events and create your own itinerary.

HERE ARE JUST SOME OF THE WAYS YOU CAN PARTICIPATE

Get Advice from Your Colleagues
Some of our faculty participants in CSU’s 2020 Textbook Affordability Summer Symposium recorded short videos to describe their experiences using open educational resources (OERs) and to provide advice for other faculty considering doing the same. These videos demonstrate the value of OERs for student achievement, as well as CSU faculty members’ commitment to student success. These videos are online and can be viewed anytime. https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/oer_reflections/

October 26, 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Expand Your Research Impact: Ask the Experts.
Do you have questions about expanding your research impact? Learn what EngagedScholarship @ Cleveland State University can do for you, including publishing journals or books; posting articles; creating your own Scholars Page; learning about copyright; measuring your impact with PlumX Metrics, and more. Register here for a Zoom link.

Register for an ORCID account
Visit the Reference Center during Open Access week to register for an ORCID account and receive your own persistent digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher. A Reference Librarian or Consultant can help you register in minutes!

Apply for a Textbook Affordability Small Grant by November 15, 2021
Revise or remix an existing open textbook for your class. Visit the Open Textbook Library to peruse peer-reviewed textbooks and decide if one of them is right for your course, or send your syllabus to your personal librarian to map your current materials to openly licensed content for you to consider.

Textbook Affordability Grant Overview 

Textbook Affordability Grant Application (log in with your CSU email address)

About Open Access Week

Now in its fourteenth year, “International Open Access Week facilitates the growing movement toward increased discoverability, sharing, use and preservation of information.  Academic and research communities are invited to learn how open access maximizes and promotes their work, provides stronger ownership for researchers and authors, and ultimately, has far reaching benefits for academia and society as a whole.

Faculty & Grad Students:

• Could you use some structured time to write and receive feedback from colleagues?
• Do you wish you could graduate with some published academic writing under your belt?
• Do you have some academic writing that needs polishing to become publishable?​​​​​​

If so, this writing club is for you!

Offered by the Writing Center and the Michael Schwartz Library, this writing club is meant to help students and faculty improve their academic writing productivity. Each week we will send a short video and provide resources and advice related to an academic writing topic, and we'll have a synchronous Zoom meeting to review the topic. At least 30 minutes of the meeting time will be set aside for quiet writing to keep you on track!  This Fall 2021 semester the weekly 5-minute videos will concern a chapter from the book Thinking Like Your Editor by Susan Rabiner and Alfred Fortunato, detailed below and available from the Michael Schwartz Library.

Please note that this writing club will be especially useful to graduate students and faculty in the humanities or social sciences. Undergraduates who have some academic writing to develop into a published article are welcome to participate. 

Meetings will occur in Zoom
from 3:00 - 4:00pm on Thursdays
beginning September 2 and ending December 16th.
 

SIGN UP FORM

Filling out the sign-up form does not obligate you to participate or attend every meeting; it merely puts you on our reminder email list and provides access to the Zoom link each week. However, you will experience the biggest writing productivity boost if you attend Zoom meetings with us!

Please feel free to share with classmates or colleagues who would like to make some progress on publishing! 

Thinking Like Your Editor by Susan Rabiner; Alfred Fortunato

ISBN: 0393038920

Publication Date: 2002-02-17

Over 50,000 books are published in America each year, the vast majority nonfiction. Even so, many writers are stymied in getting their books published, never mind gaining significant attention for their ideas--and substantial sales. This is the book editors have been recommending to would-be authors. Filled with trade secrets, Thinking Like Your Editor explains:* why every proposal should ask and answer five key questions;* how to tailor academic writing to a general reader, without losing ideas or dumbing down your work;* how to write a proposal that editors cannot ignore;* why the most important chapter is your introduction;* why "simple structure, complex ideas" is the mantra for creating serious nonfiction;* why smart nonfiction editors regularly reject great writing but find new arguments irresistible. Whatever the topic, from history to business, science to philosophy, law, or gender studies, this book is vital to every serious nonfiction writer.

CSU Faculty reflections on their transition to remote teaching

Recently, the Center for Faculty Excellence (CFE) Reflection in Action Series has been added to EngagedScholarship @ Cleveland State University.  It features the audio reflections of Cleveland State University Instructors recorded, in action, having recently made the transition to remote teaching.  The CFE Reflection in Action Series is a new collaborative project between the Center for Faculty Excellence (CFE) and the Center for Instructional Technology and Distance Learning (CITDL) to historically document how our faculty have transitioned to remote teaching.  

To find this resource or find out how you can participate, visit
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/reflectioninaction/ 

VIRTUAL OpenCon Cleveland is May 13-14, 2021

Registration will close Thursday, May 13 at 7:00 am:  ** Register here **

Our fourth annual OpenCon Cleveland event - completely free, virtual, and open to all - is happening May 13-14th!  This year we'll celebrate and explore open education and open access with speakers, panels, and activities focused on open pedagogy, social justice, and supporting remote learning.  Anyone interested in Open Education is welcome: faculty, librarians, library staff, instructional designers, and students.

• Our event begins on Thursday, May 13 when attendees will view lightning talks at their leisure via our Slack channel. Conference attendees are also encouraged to participate in asynchronous discussions via Slack.
• On Friday, May 14 the conference will shift to synchronous discussion in our three live panel events via Zoom, so participants can ask questions of the speakers, followed at 3:30 pm by our keynote address by Dr. Regina Gong, Open Educational Resources (OER) & Student Success Librarian at Michigan State University.

>> VIEW THE DETAILS AND FULL SCHEDULE HERE <<

Tuesday, April 6th, 11:20AM – 12:20 PM
Presented by Mandi Goodsett, Performing Arts & Humanities Librarian, OER & Copyright Advisor, Michael Schwartz Library

Open textbooks are complete, legitimate textbooks licensed to be freely used, edited, and distributed. Increasingly, faculty members across the country are adopting open textbooks as one way to address affordability and increase their flexibility in the classroom. In this workshop, you will learn about open textbooks and discover what open resources are available in your field.

Join us today for this free lunchtime workshop, sponsored by the Center for Faculty Excellence.

Email Mandi Goodsett for Zoom link: a.goodsett@csuohio.edu
Center for Faculty Excellence

OpenCon 2021:  submission deadline for lightning talk proposals extended to April 5th!

If you've been thinking about proposing a lightning talk for this year's virtual OpenCon, there's still time!  We welcome proposals for 5-10 minute lightning talk presentations, preferably related to the themes of open pedagogy, social justice, and supporting remote learning (although other topics are welcome). Accepted presenters will pre-record their lightning talk sessions and participate in asynchronous and synchronous discussions with attendees. All submissions are due on March 29th [submission deadline extended to April 5th] . Proposals will be evaluated according to this lighting talk proposal rubric.

Please feel free to direct any questions to Mandi Goodsett at a.goodsett@csuohio.edu.

Lightning talk submission form

About VIRTUAL OpenCon Cleveland 2021
coming May 13-14

Our 4th annual OpenCon Cleveland, offered online this year, will continue to provide faculty, students, staff, and administrators with opportunities to connect and learn about open education! The conference is sure to inspire you and to provide lots of ideas for your open education efforts, as it has in the past.

Save the date for May 13-14th, and consider participating by submitting a lightning talk proposal! Submissions are due March 29th.

More information about the OpenCon 2021 Cleveland event can be found here:
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/oa/opencon2021/

OE Week Day 5:
Textbook Hero Award
Call for Nominations

Do you consider the costs of your course materials when you choose them? So many CSU faculty do, and to all of you, CSU students say THANK YOU!

“I love you for this :)”
“Thank you so much! It is very helpful!”
“Thank you for being so considerate and understanding! You rock! :)”
“Thank you for using a free book! My pockets appreciate it! <3”
“Means a lot since money is always tight”
“We appreciate you! Spread the word to your colleagues!”
 

If you are an affordability advocate, please encourage your students to nominate you for a Textbook Hero Award! This teaching award is presented by the CSU Student Government Association and can be a valuable addition to your promotion and tenure portfolio. Give your students a chance to formally say thank you!

Meet our previous Textbook Heroes!
 

An invitation to CSU Faculty from the Michael Schwartz Library:  
Take five minutes to help us build a better, more up-to-date library collection

Take our 2021 Library Collections Faculty Survey

To better align the library’s collections with the current needs of the campus community, the Michael Schwartz Library is reaching out to all faculty to obtain up-to-date feedback on your information resource needs and priorities. The library will use faculty feedback to help plan and implement collection development priorities over the next year.

We can't buy everything, so it's critical for us to select materials and subscriptions with an eye toward supporting your teaching and research.  Those needs can be a moving target, and we need your input to make the best choices.  

The 5-minute survey is running now.  We appreciate your input as we work together to meet the growing information needs of the university. 

Take the survey now

Even if you have previously contacted the library about your information needs, we encourage you to complete the survey. The survey should take less than 5 minutes to complete.

OE Week Day 3:  Announcing Our Spring 2021 Textbook Affordability Grants!

Textbook Affordability Grants are offered through the Michael Schwartz Library to encourage and support the creation or compilation of low-or no-cost course materials. Faculty whose projects are selected will receive a $1,000 grant to revise or remix an existing open textbook. Appropriate support to find, adopt, or adapt an existing open educational textbook or other education resources to replace a traditional, high-cost textbook will be provided by the Michael Schwartz Library, the Center for eLearning, the Center for Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, and the Center for Faculty Excellence. Five awards are available.

Apply for a Textbook Affordability Grant by June 1st! 

Have questions before you apply?

Attend a virtual Open Textbook workshop 

• Wednesday, March 3rd at 11:00am
• Tuesday, April 6th at 11:20am

Asynchronous version available

• Learn more about past faculty winners and their projects
• Hear from CSU faculty members who have benefitted from considering open textbooks
• Request a review of your syllabus by your personal librarian for potential open or free course material alternatives

Contact Mandi Goodsett at a.goodsett@csuohio.edu or see the Affordable Learning @ CSU website for more information. Thank you to all of our affordability advocates across campus, and happy Open Education Week!

UPDATE, June 2021:
 

Sixteen CSU faculty participated in our second Textbook Affordability Summer Symposium, which included completion of learning modules, reviewing an open, library-licensed, or low cost textbook, and a commitment to either adopt or create open resources in at least one course. Participating faculty received a $600 stipend, funded by the Provost’s Office, for their participation. Four faculty have already adopted affordable resources as a result of their work in the symposium.

TASS is sponsored by the Provost’s Office, and is a collaboration between staff in the Michael Schwartz Library, Center for eLearning, Center for Faculty Excellence, Center for Instructional Technology and Distance Learning.

See what past participants have to say about their experiences in the program.

Open Ed Week Day 2: 
Textbook Affordability Summer Symposium

Are you interested in reducing the cost and increasing ease of access for your course materials, but you’re unsure where to start?  

Are you curious what people mean when they talk about open education or open textbooks?

Do you find it difficult to change textbooks because you work with a team of instructors to teach a high enrollment course?  

If you answered yes to any of these questions, consider applying for CSU’s Textbook Affordability Summer Symposium! Participants will receive a $600 stipend. 

What: a program to help faculty consider and use openly-licensed or other affordable course content 
When: May 10-28; asynchronous; 4-6 hours of work  
Where: Blackboard 
Who: Any full-time or part-time CSU faculty are welcome to apply 
How: Fill out our application form by April 9th

How does the program work? 

Step One: By April 9th, complete and submit your application form and submit the syllabus for the course in which you are interested in using an OER. 

Step Two: If you are selected to participate, CSU Librarians will review your syllabus and map suggested openly-licensed, affordable, or library-licensed content to syllabus topics.  

Step Three: From May 10-28th, participants will engage in the Textbook Affordability Summer Symposium on Blackboard/Zoom. Participants will explore the basics of open education, review an open access or low cost resource, learn how to align course content with learning outcomes, and reflect on advocating for affordable or open access course materials in the future. There are four modules of content, each of which should take 1-2 hours to complete. 

As part of the training, each participant will: 

• Attend at least one synchronous Zoom discussion session (out of 2-3 options).
• Review at least one openly-licensed, library-licensed, or low-cost resource in their discipline (preferably one found in the Open Textbook Library) by May 28th, 2021. 
• Create a curriculum map to align the open access or low cost resource to their course.
• Write a short report outlining how they will take action to implement the use of the openly licensed content across all sections/semesters of the course in their department.

Step Four: After the training, each participant will: 

• Use at least one openly-licensed, library-licensed, or low-cost resource (required or optional) in a course they are teaching in Fall 2021 or Spring 2022 OR create and use openly licensed ancillary materials (e.g., quiz questions, PowerPoint slides, etc.) for a course they are teaching in Spring 2022 or Fall 2022.
• Speak at a future open textbook workshop or talk offered by the Center for Faculty Excellence, Michael Schwartz Library, or other institution, if approved.

Each participant will receive a $600 stipend for participating in the symposium.  

The following applicants will receive special consideration: 

• Multiple faculty teaching the same course 
• Faculty teaching high enrollment courses or gateway courses 

Faculty who have already received a Textbook Affordability Grant or participated in a previous Textbook Affordability Summer Symposium will not be eligible to participate, but participants in the Summer Symposium are eligible and encouraged to apply for future Textbook Affordability grants. 

See what past participants have to say about their experiences in the program.

It's Open Ed Week!

Open Education week is an annual international celebration of the power of open education to improve student learning, faculty flexibility, and access to education. We’re taking this opportunity to highlight some of our Affordability @ CSU initiatives!

• Textbook Affordability Grants Spring 2021
  Are you interested in creating an open educational resource, or piecing together various free resources to replace your commercial textbook? This $1000 grant provides faculty with a team of CSU staff to help with such a project! Grant applications will be available on Day 3 of OE Week, Wednesday, March 3rd. Read more about it.

• Textbook Affordability Summer Symposium 2021
  The CSU OER Committee, with funding from the Provost’s Office, is pleased to offer our 2nd Textbook Affordability Summer Symposium! This 3 week asynchronous program teaches faculty about open education and supports them in adopting an open educational resource. Participants receive a $600 stipend.  Applications for the symposium are due April 9th. 
   
• Open Textbook Workshops
  To learn what all the buzz is about open textbooks, attend a virtual Open Textbook Workshop!  We're offering two:  Wednesday, March 3rd at 11:00am, and April 6th at 11:30am. Register today!
   
• OpenCon Cleveland 2021
  Our 4th annual OpenCon Cleveland, offered online this year, will continue to provide faculty, students, staff, and administrators with opportunities to connect and learn about open education! Save the date for May 13-14th, and consider submitting a lightning talk for this year’s event by March 29th!
   
• Textbook Affordability at CSU by the Numbers
  Learn how the Michael Schwartz Library supports textbook and course material affordability for our students.

CSU faculty and administrators have found support and increased flexibility adopting open educational resources. Hear some of them describe their experiences exploring open education - and hear the impact on their students - in our video.

If you’re interested in exploring one or more of these initiatives or would like to report your affordability efforts, please don’t hesitate to contact Mandi Goodsett at a.goodsett@csuohio.edu. See the Affordable Learning @ CSU website for more information. Thank you to all of our affordability advocates across campus, and happy Open Education Week!

An Update on 2020 Textbook Affordability Grants
The Michael Schwartz Library, in conjunction with various partners, including the Center for Faculty Excellence and the Center for eLearning, offered Textbook Affordability Grants to CSU faculty during the spring and fall semesters in 2020.  Faculty whose projects were selected received a $500 grant to adopt an open resource or a $1,000 grant to revise or remix an existing open textbook. 

The goal of the grant is to encourage and support adoption of openly licensed course materials in order to save students money and encourage student-centered pedagogy...and it's working!  Since 2016, our Textbook Affordability Grants have already saved CSU students $909,800!

Congratulations to the faculty who were awarded the 2020 Textbook Affordability Grants!  

Spring 2020

• Michael Baumgartner, Associate Professor, Music Department, for his MUS 411/MUS 412 class
• Adrienne Gosselin, Associate Professor, English Department, for her ENG 207 class
  (see resulting book titled: Charles Chesnutt in the Classroom)
• Xiongyi Liu, Associate Professor, Curriculum & Foundations, for her EDB 302 class
• Daniel Munther, Associate Professor, Mathematics Department, for his MTH 386 class
• Emily Rauschert, Associate Professor, Biological, Geological, & Environmental Science Department, for her BIO 194H class
• Ieda Weber Rodrigues, Associate Professor, Mathematics Department, for her MTH 220 class
• Patty Stoddard Dare, School of Social Work, for her SWK 494/694
  (see resulting book titled Introduction to Substance Use Disorders.)
• Kelly Wrenhaven, History Department, for her HIS 337 class
  (see resulting book titled HIS 337: Greek Gods, Heroes, and Worship.)
• April Yorke, School of Health Sciences, for her SPH 228 class
  (see resulting workbook titled Phonetics Workbook for Students of Communication Sciences and Disorders.

Fall 2020 

• Jorge Gatica, Professor, Chemical & Biomedical Engineering Department, for his CHE 404 class
• Thijs Heus, Assistant Professor, Physics Department, for his PHY 470/570 class
• Marcus Schultz-Bergin, Assistant College Lecturer, Department of Philosophy & Comparative Religion, for his PHL 215 class
• Rongjun Sun, Associate Professor, Department of Criminology Anthropology and Sociology, for his SOC 316 class
• Candice Vander Weerdt, Assistant College Lecturer, Management Department, for her MGT 465 class

Faculty: Stay tuned for an announcement about Spring 2021 Textbook Affordability Grant opportunities. Check the Affordable Learning at CSU website for updates. 

by Mandi Goodsett, Performing Arts & Humanities Librarian, OER & Copyright Advisor

Textbook Affordability Summer Symposium 

CSU's OER (Open Educational Resources) Committee, with funding from the Provost's office, offered its first Textbook Affordability Summer Symposium (TASS) in August of 2020. The program was coordinated by librarians from the Michael Schwartz Library, as well as staff from the Center for eLearning, Center for Faculty Excellence, and the Center for Instructional Technology and Distance Learning.  Twenty faculty participated in the program, which required them to complete three Blackboard modules about open education, commit to using an OER (at least as an optional resource) in a future course, and create a short video about their experience to share with the campus community. In return, faculty received a $600 stipend.  Twelve of the 20 TASS participants decided to adopt an open textbook in place of a commercial textbook as a result of the symposium. 

The Provost's Office has agreed to support another summer symposium in May 2021, so stay tuned for details about the next symposium opportunity. 

Dr. Kelly Wrenhaven, a 2020 Textbook Affordability Grant winner and Associate Professor of Classics/Director of Classical Studies in the History department, has just published HIS 339: Greek Gods, Heroes, and Worship.  This freely available open educational resource examines ancient Greek religion and considers its role in the contexts of Greek culture and thought. The estimated annual savings to students taking this course is $3,500.

Dr. Wrenhaven writes about what prompted her to create this resource:

"I’m developing my face-to-face course, HIS 337: Greek Gods, Heroes, and Worship, as a web course so I decided to redo the course from the ground up. While I ended up deciding to keep the primary source textbook (it’s extremely difficult to find such a good collection of primary sources online), I wanted the rest of the course material to be open access. This will provide me with the opportunity to make my material more dynamic. In addition to including written material, I can also include documentaries, images, and podcasts/recorded lectures as part of the course material, all in one easy-to-access place."

Congratulations, Dr. Wrenhaven - and thanks for caring about making education affordable!

MSL Academic Endeavors is the publishing imprint of the Michael Schwartz Library at Cleveland State University.

Browse all Academic Endeavors titles

More about the project

Congratulations to Patricia Stoddard Dare, CSU School of Social Work! Professor Stoddard Dare, a 2020 Textbook Affordability Grant recipient, has just published Introduction to Substance Use Disorders.  

This freely available open educational resource will be used in her Social Work classes and is designed for use in an introductory substance misuse course.  The work was in part adapted from two books, Theories and Biological Basis of Substance Misuse, Part I and Part 2 by Audrey Begun of The Ohio State University.  

Patricia Stoddard Dare is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work.   

Find the new book in EngagedScholarship @ Cleveland State University at https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/msl_ae_ebooks/20 

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions: The Journal of Border Studies
Volume 4, Issue 1

EngagedScholarship @ Cleveland State University has just published Volume 4, Issue 1 of Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions: The Journal of Border Studies.  Last year, Cleveland State University commemorated the 400 years since 20 Africans were brought by ship to Virginia, in late August of 1619 with a city-wide, year-long observation called Project 400.  The Project 400: Our Lived Experience conference took place from September 27-28, 2019 with the participation of many members of the community and presenters from across the country. This volume presents select articles from that conference and from CSU's 8th International Crossing Over Symposium.

The volume features an introduction by Guest Editor Ronnie A. Dunn, CSU's Chief Diversity Officer and Associate Professor in Urban Affairs, and articles from three of the speakers who presented their work during the Project 400 conference. Section two of this volume includes one article originally presented during CSU's 8th International Crossing Over Symposium from October 4-5, 2019. 

ABOUT THE JOURNAL

The main focus of Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions: The Journal of Border Studies is the analysis of physical and metaphorical borderlands—the encounters, conflicts, and resolutions between different groups in our society.  Its editors are Antonio Medina Rivera, Professor of Spanish and Chair, Department of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures and Lee Wilberschied, Associate Professor Emerita, Spanish and Foreign/Second Language Acquisition.

Phonetics Workbook for Students of Communication Sciences and Disorders
by April M. Yorke, PhD, CCC-SLP
with Emily Sternad, Carley Shermak, Alyssa Mahler
 

Congratulations to Dr. April Yorke, CSU School of Health Sciences! Professor Yorke, a 2020 Textbook Affordability Grant recipient, has just published Phonetics Workbook for Students of Communication Sciences and Disorders.  This freely available open educational resource will be used in her Speech and Hearing classes and is designed to give students in communication sciences and disorders foundational knowledge in Phonetics. 

April M. Yorke, PhD, CCC-SLP has been an Assistant Professor in the Speech and Hearing Program, Cleveland State University School of Health Sciences since 2015.

Find the new book in EngagedScholarship @ Cleveland State University at https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/msl_ae_ebooks/19/

About our Textbook Affordability Grants

The Michael Schwartz Library, in conjunction with various partners, including the Center for Faculty Excellence and the Center for eLearning, has been offering Textbook Affordability Grants to faculty each semester since 2015. The goal of the program is to encourage and support adoption of openly-licensed course materials in order to save students money and encourage student-centered pedagogy.

Since 2016, our grants have saved CSU students approximately $894,800. We applaud our faculty who are supporting open pedagogy and student success by considering and using openly licensed materials in the classroom, and encourage you to apply for the next round of grants.

CSU Faculty: Are you interested in reducing the cost and increasing ease of access for your course materials, but unsure where to start?

Do you find it difficult to change textbooks because you work with a team of instructors to teach a high enrollment course?

Are you curious what people mean when they talk about open education or open textbooks?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, consider applying for CSU’s Textbook Affordability Summer Symposium! Participants will receive a $600 stipend.

What: a program to help faculty consider and use openly-licensed or other affordable course content

When: August 3 – 14, 2020; asynchronous; 4-6 hours of work

Where: Blackboard

Who: Any full-time or adjunct CSU faculty are welcome to apply

How: Fill out our application form by July 13th

How does the program work?

Step One: Apply for the program and submit the syllabus for the course in which you are interested in using an OER for librarian review by July 13th.

Step Two: Librarians will review the syllabi of all successful applicants and map suggested openly-licensed, affordable, or library-licensed content to syllabus topics.

Step Three: Participants will participate in online training through Blackboard August 3rd to August 14th, exploring the basics of open education, how to align course content with learning outcomes, and how to advocate for affordable content among colleagues. There are three modules of content, and each should take 1-2 hours to complete.

As part of the training, each participant will:

• Review at least one openly-licensed, library-licensed, or low-cost resource in their discipline (preferably one found in the Open Textbook Library) by August 13th, 2020.
• Write a short report outlining how they will take action to implement the use of the openly licensed content across all sections/semesters of the course in their department

Step Four: After the training, each participant will:

• Use at least one openly-licensed, library-licensed, or low-cost resource (required or optional) in a course they are teaching in Fall 2020 or Spring 2021 OR create and use openly licensed ancillary materials (e.g., quiz questions, PowerPoint slides, etc.) for a course they are teaching in Spring 2021 or Fall 2021.
• Speak at a future open textbook workshop offered by the Center for Faculty Excellence or the Michael Schwartz Library (or another institution, if approved), or other similar university event.
• Present a poster at the following year’s Provost Teaching Summit, either alone or as part of a group.

Each participant will receive a $600 stipend for participating in the symposium.

The following applicants will receive special consideration:

• Multiple faculty teaching the same course
• Faculty teaching high enrollment courses or gateway courses

Faculty who have already received a Textbook Affordability Grant will not be eligible to participate, but participants in the Summer Symposium are eligible and encouraged to apply for future Textbook Affordability grants.

Apply Now!

 

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.

>>The Bright Continent, by Kathy Curnow

Applications are due May 15th

Have you written new course content to teach your class online? Are you looking for new required course materials that your students can access from anywhere? Use this opportunity to win grant funding for your efforts!

The Michael Schwartz Library, in collaboration with the Center for eLearning, Center for Instructional Technology and Distance Learning (CITDL), and the Center for Faculty Excellence, is sponsoring another Textbook Affordability Small Grant to help support faculty who are willing to adopt/adapt an open textbook for a class. Grant applications are due May 15th, 2020.

Grant Overview

Grant Application

ABOUT OPEN TEXTBOOKS

Open textbooks, which are a type of open educational resource, are full, real textbooks licensed to be freely used, edited, and distributed. Increasingly, faculty members all across the country are adopting open textbooks as one way to address the crisis of textbook affordability. Visit the Open Textbook Library to peruse peer-reviewed textbooks and decide if one of them is right for your course, or send your syllabus to your personal librarian to map your current materials to openly-licensed content for your consideration. Successful applicants will receive support from a team of librarians and instructional designers who will help you adopt or adapt openly-licensed material for your use.

Contact your personal librarian for more information.

Affordable Learning @ Cleveland State University: making higher education more affordable for students, together.

STUDENTS & FACULTY:  Your Librarians at CSU have quickly compiled a new Research Guide: Library Support for Online Teaching and Learning to let you know about the many ways we can help you NOW, including...

• Connecting from off-campus
• Finding materials for your courses, including pro tips for finding and navigating temporary free access being offered by many publishers
• Contacting Librarians with reference questions using phone, email, chat, or virtual reference via a number of streaming video platforms
• Online Library resources
• Access to news & magazines

Faculty, you'll also find

• Help requesting and designing a synchronous or asynchronous virtual library instruction session, using your choice of streaming platforms
• Copyright considerations when rapidly shifting your courses from in-person to online

Our ongoing priority is to support our users with the level of commitment you've come to expect.

We look to you - students and faculty -  to tell us how we can help.

LINK:

>> LIBRARY SUPPORT FOR ONLINE TEACHING AND LEARNING

CONFERENCE CANCELED? POST YOUR WORK ON ENGAGED SCHOLARSHIP

CSU FACULTY:  did your academic conference get canceled?  Your work, including PowerPoint Presentations, posters, and conference papers can still be published in EngagedScholarship@CSU!  Contact us at library.es@csuohio.edu for more information.

Applications are due October 31st

The Michael Schwartz Library, in collaboration with the Center for eLearning, Center for Instructional Technology and Distance Learning (CITDL), and the Center for Faculty Excellence, is sponsoring another Textbook Affordability Small Grant to help support faculty who are willing to adopt/adapt an open textbook for a class. Grant applications are due October 31st, 2019.

Grant Overview

Grant Application (PDF)

ABOUT OPEN TEXTBOOKS
Open textbooks are full, real textbooks licensed to be freely used, edited, and distributed. Increasingly, faculty members all across the country are adopting open textbooks as one way to address the crisis of textbook affordability. Visit OpenStax.org to peruse high-quality, peer-reviewed textbooks and decide if one of them is right for your course. A support team at CSU will help you adopt or adapt one of the books for your use.

Call 216-875-9734 or contact your personal librarian for more information.

Affordable Learning @ Cleveland State University: making higher education more affordable for students, together.

Faculty: Save the Date! SEPTEMBER 11th, 2019: Learn About OpenStax Textbooks

General Session (open to all): 1:00-2:00pm in RT 502
Chairs and Directors Session: 2:00-3:00pm in RT 502
Refreshments will be served.

Faculty, we hope you'll take an hour to join us on Wednesday, September 11, 2019 for an informational presentation about OpenStax textbooks, featuring Nicole Finkbeiner of Rice University's Free Textbook Initiative. Find our how OpenStax textbooks and other Open Educational Resources can benefit you and your students.

Rice University-based nonprofit publisher OpenStax produces high-quality, peer-reviewed textbooks that are free online and low-cost in print. Since its inception in 2012, OpenStax has become the largest publisher of open educational resources (OER), with 29 textbooks used in 48 percent of colleges and universities in the U.S. In 2015, OpenStax revised its institutional partnership program to help campuses develop strategies to increase OER use on their campuses, make their existing initiatives more effective and work together to learn from and support each other.

U.S. colleges and universities that have partnered with OpenStax to encourage the use of freely available learning materials have saved their students tens of millions of dollars on textbook and materials costs, mostly as a result of initiatives implemented during OpenStax's institutional partnership program.

For more information, visit Affordable Learning @ CSU

About Nicole Finbeiner
Nicole Finkbeiner is the Director of Institutional Relations for Rice University’s free textbook initiative, OpenStax, where she founded and runs the nationally-recognized Institutional Partner Program. She is a national keynote speaker on open education, equity, and access. Nicole also coaches colleges and universities to effectively encourage faculty adoptions of Open Educational Resources (OER) to promote student success and faculty academic freedom. A graduate of Kellogg Community College, Western Michigan University, and Michigan State University, she worked in college relations for community colleges prior to joining OpenStax. When not promoting OER, Nicole fills her time working on civil rights issues, traveling, reading, staying healthy, and dragging her friends and family to random cultural events.

Faculty and staff--Are you interested in trying our new technology in the classroom? Do you use digital methods in your research?

Students--Do you enjoy getting to use digital technology in your learning? Are you excited about learning new creative and digital skills?

Drop in during Digital CSU's Digital Expo on Thursday, September 26th from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., on the 1st floor of the Michael Schwartz Library, located in Rhodes Tower. Come check out cool technology and software exhibited by passionate members of the CSU campus community, including virtual reality, citation tools, digital light boards, GIS mapping, and more!

RSVPs are encouraged!

Enjoy a snack, chat with exhibitors, and try out some new gadgets, apps, and software!

--by Ben Richards, Business and Communication Librarian

Digital CSU is a low-stakes environment to learn about digital methods in research & teaching across disciplines and colleges at Cleveland State University. It convenes once a month during the academic year. Digital CSU conveners: Melanie Gagich and Ben Richards. For more information about Digital CSU, including the monthly meeting schedule, visit http://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/digitalcsu/.

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The Michael Schwartz Library, in collaboration with the Center for eLearning, Center for Instructional Technology and Distance Learning (CITDL), and the Center for Faculty Excellence, is sponsoring another Textbook Affordability Small Grant to help support faculty who are willing to adopt/adapt an open textbook for a class. Grant Applications are due May 10, 2019.

Open Textbooks

Open textbooks are full, real textbooks licensed to be freely used, edited, and distributed. Increasingly, faculty members all across the country are adopting open textbooks as one way to address this crisis. Visit OpenStax.org to peruse high-quality, peer-reviewed textbooks and decide if one of them is right for your course. A support team at CSU will help you adopt or adapt one of the books for your use.

Call 216-875-9734 or contact your personal librarian for more information.

Affordable Learning @ Cleveland State University: making higher education more affordable for students, together.