JANUARY 22, 2025 — The UTSA Libraries has awarded 12 faculty members 2024-2025 Adopt-a-Free Textbook grants to improve education while reducing the cost of course materials for students. The recipients represent various academic disciplines, including Russian, education, history, public administration, humanities and social sciences, women's studies, environmental sciences, sociology and chemistry. The grants will result in nearly $240,000 in student savings over the grant period.
This year's awardees are advancing UTSA's mission of affordability and inclusivity in education by adopting, adapting or creating free and low-cost course materials or Open Educational Resource (OER) textbooks as the primary instructional materials in their courses. The savings generated by these efforts support students financially and enhance access to high-quality educational resources.
"The Adopt-a-Free Textbook program is a cornerstone of UTSA Libraries’ commitment to student success,” said Dean Hendrix, UTSA vice provost and university librarian. By providing faculty with the ability to provide free and open educational resources, we help ensure that all students, regardless of their financial situation, have access to the materials they need to excel.”
The Adopt-a-Free Textbook program allows faculty to provide free and open educational resources to students.
He added, “Since its inception in 2016, the UTSA Libraries has proudly managed this program, supporting faculty in their efforts to reduce costs and enhance learning outcomes for our vibrant student body. As a result, UTSA Libraries has saved UTSA students over $12 million since 2016."
This year’s Adopt-a-Free Textbook grants were awarded to faculty with projects categorized into Adoption, No Cost and Design. These categories reflect the faculty's various approaches to reducing the cost of course materials for UTSA students.
"These grants are vital in ensuring that all students have equal access to the resources they need to succeed, regardless of their financial situation,” said Dee Ann Ivie, UTSA Libraries’ OER coordinator. “We are inspired by our dedicated faculty for their commitment to adopting and creating open educational resources. Their passion for making education more affordable and accessible is truly impactful, and we thank them for their unwavering support of our students' success."
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Join UTSA Libraries and Museums to learn more about the publishing discounts available for UTSA researchers. Current agreements include Elsevier, Cambridge University Press, Wiley, and more. Bring your questions and feedback for the library as we continue to pursue partnerships with publishers to reduce costs for our researchers.
Virtual Event (Zoom)Have questions about making your OER accessible on UTSA Pressbooks? The OER Team and the Digital Accessibility are ready to answer them! Bring your questions about OER and accessibility and receive guidance from our two teams.
Virtual (Zoom)Perfect for faculty and grad students who are ready to take their research to the next level, this workshop will guide you through the basics of the I-Corps program. Learn how I-Corps can teach you entrepreneurial skills to translate your research to commercialization, how you can get funding to discover customers for your technology, and how I-Corps can help you find the value proposition that will get your technology to sell. Lunch is included.
TBDLearn how to maximize the benefits of ORCID, how it can help you save time, and how to set up automatic updates to keep your ORCID record current.
Virtual Event (Zoom)In this hands-on workshop, participants will learn to setup an EndNote library, save references and PDFs, and automatically create and edit a bibliography. Attendees are encouraged, but not required, to have EndNote already installed on a personal computer.
Virtual Event (Zoom)Pressbooks Basic workshop attendees will be able to: create a new book, clone an existing book, remix chapters from a variety of different Creative Commons licensed books, add media and other content to a book, export a book in a wide range of formats.
Virtual (Zoom)This workshop will guide you how to leverage Overleaf program to effectively manage citations in your research papers.
Virtual Event (Zoom)The University of Texas at San Antonio is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. As an institution of access and excellence, UTSA embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property - for Texas, the nation and the world.
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