Tame Wild Textbook Prices!

Open Education Week 2017. March 27-31Did you know:

  • Furman students spend an estimated $1,270 on textbooks each year (1)
  • the cost of college textbooks has increased 88% in the last 10 years (2)
  • there are free online open textbooks written by scholars in most academic disciplines
  • there are Furman faculty who are using and creating open textbooks for their classes

The Furman Libraries are celebrating Open Education Week (March 27-31) in the hope of raising awareness about free and open educational textbooks and other resources that “exist for everyone, everywhere, right now” (3).

It is possible to tame wild textbook prices, but we need your help!

What can Furman students do?

  • Talk to each other about how textbook costs impact you.
  • Talk to student government about ways to address textbook costs together.
  • Talk to your faculty about how they can facilitate immediate, low or no cost access to the materials you need to take full advantage of the Furman experience.
  • Visit the Open Education display in the Duke Library from March 22 – March 31.

What can Furman faculty do?

  • Learn more about what open educational resources (OER) are available in your discipline.
  • Visit our Open Education display in the Duke Library from March 22 – March 31.
  • Review existing resources that might be incorporated into your classrooms.
  • Participate in the OER Review Program.
  • Consider remixing or writing your own education resources with licenses to open them to students across campus and around the world.

Questions? Comments? Contact us at scholarexchange@furman.edu.

 

References

1. “Cost of Attendance” (2016-2017) by Furman University. http://www.furman.edu/sites/financialaid/CostofAttendance/Pages/default.aspx

2. “College tuition and fees increase 63 percent since January 2006” by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2016/college-tuition-and-fees-increase-63-percent-since-january-2006.htm

3. “What is Open Education Week?”. https://www.openeducationweek.org/page/what-is-open-education-week

 

 

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