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.