Education is definitely an investment and funding that investment is not always easy. Just recently, I heard of a student who had to drop an entire semester’s worth of courses because his funding did not come through. I am so saddened by that…

So then the question becomes:

How can we make education more affordable?

Tuition and fees are beyond our control. You (as faculty), can however control the cost of textbooks and course materials — resources that are essential to the students’ learning experience. What if there was a way for you to provide these much needed resources at no cost for our students?

Yes, We Can!

Well, the good news is that there is a way to do that, if you are willing and able to invest time and effort in creating, adapting, or adopting open education resources (such as textbooks or course ware). Should you choose to embark on this journey, you will not be alone! You have partners in:

• your embedded GRU librarian – can assist you in locating open educational resources (OER)
• myself, as your GRU instructional designer – can assist you in locating, modifying, creating OER and implementing it in your course(s)
• ALG – offers you a competitive textbook transformation grant.

Textbook Transformation Grant

Please allow me to introduce you to the Affordable Georgia Initiative (ALG), if you are not already familiar with it.

Basically, the 2015 and 2016 fiscal year budgets for the State of Georgia include funding to support Affordable Learning Georgia (ALG). This University System of Georgia initiative focuses on reducing the costs of textbooks and the enhancement of GALILEO, Georgia’s Virtual Library and ALG’s parent initiative. [3]

Wanna Get Started?

If you are interested in making your course more affordable to students through the adoption of no-cost-to-students learning materials, you can:

• read more about OER
• reach out to me for an initial meeting
• if you are interested in applying for the textbook transformation grant, please:
  • visit http://affordablelearninggeorgia.org/about/grants_rfp_rounds345 and
  • mark you calendar for their October 5th webinar.