ALS Call for 2024-2025
The CSUSB Affordable Learning Solutions Grant (AY 2024-25) encourages faculty to discover, adopt, and assign low- or no-cost, quality educational materials for their courses. For more information about faculty adoptions, please visit the Open Textbooks & Open Educational Resources Guide by Jennifer Beamer (Pfau Library Scholarly Communications Librarian).
What Is the Grant’s Purpose?
The Grant compensates faculty for time spent locating and adopting more affordable instructional materials for their students.
Faculty receive $700 for adopting low- or no-cost course materials and an additional $100 for attending a workshop on selecting Affordable/No Cost materials (Date TBD) with Librarian Jennifer Beamer. The incentive is payable as professional development and disbursed at the end of Summer Session 2025 (upon completion of all requirements).
How Do I Qualify?
You automatically qualify for our $700 OER ALS Grant if:
- For an Existing Course Offered in 2024-2025: Your adoption(s) of Zero Cost Course Materials reduced – or will reduce – the cost of course materials by 30% from the course’s most recent offering.
- For a New Course Offered in 2024-2025: Your new course can be categorized as a Zero Cost Course Materials class – that is, students are not required to purchase materials at any point in the semester.
Faculty adopters will receive an additional $100 for attending a workshop on selecting Affordable/No Cost materials (Date TBD) with Librarian Jennifer Beamer. Grants are payable in professional development funds.
Why Adopt?
Open textbooks and OERs can increase student engagement and retention! The 2022 Florida Student Survey found that 53% of the 13,000 students surveyed did not purchase a required textbook due to cost. Because of textbook costs, 43% of students in the survey took fewer courses, and 24% reported dropping out of a course (Florida Virtual Campus 2022).
Open textbooks and educational resources allow educators to adapt instructional resources to the individual needs of their students, ensuring that resources are up to date and that cost is not a barrier to accessing high-quality, standards-aligned resources. Open materials also tend to be more inclusive. One advantage of using an Open Textbook (OER) is its flexibility: users can turn it into any format they wish (vs. traditional resources).
How to Apply?
To apply, please complete the ALS 2024-25 application (10 mins. approx.): Call for 2024-25
What Information Will I Need?
- Course number (e.g., SPAN 4411) + name (e.g., Special Topics in Theater/Literature)
- Enrollment (approx.)
- Year + semester when the course was last taught
- Previous textbook title, author, and cost
- Projected cost of new instructional materials
- First semester when you’ll teach the course with ALS materials
- A brief description of your plan to reduce the costs of instructional materials.
- Plans may include the adoption/adaptation of:
- Materials that reduce costs to students by 30%
- An Open Textbook
- Open education resources/materials
- Replacement of course materials with library texts or links to library resources
- If applicable, please include the title of the new textbook or instructional materials.
For help selecting class materials, visit the Open Textbooks & Open Educational Resources Guide or book an appointment with Jennifer Beamer (Pfau Library Scholarly Communications Librarian).
Who Can Apply?
Full-time and part-time faculty are welcome to apply. A proposed class project shall not duplicate any other project already funded by ALS. Participants may only receive one grant per academic year. Proposals should not duplicate projects already funded through other university sources.
Requirements for completion:
- Implementation of the project during the 2024-2025 academic year.
- (For the additional $100) Attendance at a Workshop on Selecting Affordable / No Cost materials with Librarian Jennifer Beamer
- A public portfolio of your project on Merlot prepared no later than two weeks after the conclusion of the course. Dr. Barbara Sperling (bsperling@calstate.edu) will provide help with the preparation of the portfolio. This link shows you a template of the e-portfolio.
- Participation in an AL$ Showcase in April 2025 (date TBD + ~3-4 min. presentation). Your presentation will discuss your experience with the program, successes of – and challenges faced – in incorporating these materials into your course design, the total amount of money students saved, and useful resources, curated content, or other helpful tips for faculty.
- Data for the annual AL$ campus report (course; # of students; the cost of previous materials; the cost of current materials) upon completion of your project.