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K-State Today

April 14, 2014

K-State faculty invited to develop open or alternative textbooks

Submitted by Sarah Hoyt

K-State Libraries announces a call for proposals for the Open/Alternative Textbook Initiative. The initiative was recently funded for a second year by Student Centered Tuition Enhancements through the K-State Student Governing Association. K-State Libraries has allocated additional funds.

Multiple awards of $1,000-$5,000 will be given to K-State faculty who develop open or alternative textbooks for their courses. Proposals are accepted from both individual faculty and from teams that teach several sections of the same course.

Successful proposals may involve the use of a range of resources across different media or the adoption and customization of an existing open access textbook. Applicants will not necessarily create an entire textbook, but rather an innovative set of learning resources, which eliminate traditional textbook costs.

Proposal requirements, submission and selection criteria, and examples of open texts already in use are available at the K-State Libraries website. Awards will be announced by approximately May 9 for the 2014-2015 academic year.

"We hope this initiative demonstrates that achieving savings for students doesn't come at the cost of the learning process," said Beth Turtle, scholarly communications and publishing librarian at K-State Libraries. "In fact, we believe alternative or open materials can be more timely and of higher quality than traditional textbooks. We also want to commend SGA for funding this project a second year and improving K-State students' financial situation for years to come."

Co-authors of the initiative proposal, Andy Bennett, department head and professor of mathematics, and Brian Lindshield, assistant professor, human nutrition, have successfully created and used open textbooks in their classes. Questions about the initiative may be directed to Turtle, Bennett or Lindshield.