To support ACU faculty in their efforts to replace traditional commercial textbooks with academically equivalent alternatives that are available at zero cost to students.
The university's leadership and the Brown Library staff share a concern about textbook affordability and its impact on student success while recognizing that it is the prerogative of faculty to select the course materials that are most appropriate for a class. Through this grant for courses offered in Fall 2021 or Spring 2022, the library is supporting selected faculty to identify and utilize no-cost options for textbooks, including open access textbooks, as long as there is no reduction in the quality of the course. The cost of college textbooks is often a major affordability issue for students, who take on additional loan debt to pay for textbooks or undercut their own learning by forgoing the purchase of textbooks. Open access textbooks* can offer an affordable, comparable, and potentially a superior alternative to commercial textbooks.
*Definition of Open Access Textbook: Textbooks that are digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.