Dr. Yoshie Nakamura's application for the Open@WRLC Faculty Course Transformation Program has been accepted. The committee believes her proposal will lead to significant student textbook savings and classroom equity.
The program, developed by the Washington Research Library Consortium (WRLC) Textbook Affordability Working Group (TAWG), is designed to, “Identify and/or create faculty grant opportunities to support adoption of no-cost or low-cost materials for courses offered by the WRLC partners.” Now in its second year, the program has saved students nearly $300,000 in textbook costs.
Per the WRLC, Using no-cost or low-cost materials advances educational equity and directly impacts student retention and academic success. The Open@WRLC Faculty Course Transformation program is designed to promote a community of Open Educational Resource (OER) advocates among partnering institutions, create incentive to add to the availability of open course materials, and provide monetary support to acknowledge the time and effort required for curriculum redesign when adopting OER.
Congratulations to Dr. Nakamura for her successful application and commitment to educational equity.