Open Textbook Faculty Incentive Program – 2017-2018 Awardees

The Office of the Provost and the University Library are proud to announce the awardees for the first year of the Open Textbook Faculty Incentive Program.  This new program encourages faculty to use and develop open educational resources (OER) as alternatives to traditional textbooks for undergraduate courses.  The incentive program is part of UIC’s student success initiative and was developed in response to student concerns about the high cost of course materials.

Eleven faculty members will each receive a portion of the $20,000 allocated for this initiative.  Faculty members’ plans include adopting open textbooks and other open education resources, modifying open textbooks, creating new open education material and incorporating library resources in their courses.  Instructors will be able to use resources more pertinent to their courses and tailor exercises and quizzes to their syllabi.  Applications were received from the colleges of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Engineering, Applied Health Sciences and Nursing and UIC Global Faculty. More than 4,500 students who enroll in the faculty awardees’ courses could potentially save approximately $700,000 by using the OER materials instead of purchasing new textbooks.  The Open Textbook Faculty Incentive Program 2017-2018 awardees are:

• Andrea McGinley, LAS, Biological Sciences; BIOS 351 Microbiology Laboratory
• Suresh Aggarwal, COE, Mechanical & Industrial; ME 428 – Numerical Methods in Mechanical Engineering
• Trischa Duke, UIC Global Faculty, Tutorium in Intensive English; ASP 033 & ASP 034
• Aidan Gray, LAS, Philosophy; Phil 102, Introductory Logic
• Theresa Williams, Nursing, BSN Completion; NURS 390 Nursing Leadership and Management in Health Care
• Catherine Tredway, Nursing, BSN Completion; NURS 322 Nursing Research and Statistics for Evidenced Based Practice
• Giamila Fantuzzi, AHS, Kinesiology and Nutrition; HN 202, Culture and Food
• Sandra Gibbons, LAS, Biological Sciences; BIOS 350 General Microbiology
• Zachary J. McDowell, LAS, Communication; COMM 206 – Public Relations and Digital Media
• Preston T. Snee, LAS, Chemistry; HEM 340-Physical Chemistry for Biochemists I.
• Adrian Barkan, LAS, Physics Department; PHYS 100; potentially PHYS 141/142 track and/or PHYS 105/107 track

The University Library will be offering workshops to awardees on copyright, fair use, and adopting and modify open education resources.  These resources will be adopted into the curriculum by Fall 2018.  For more information on the program, see researchguides.uic.edu/opentextbooks.  Watch for an announcement about the 2018-2019 funding cycle next Fall.  For more information, please contact Sandy De Groote at sgroote@uic.edu.

For more information, please contact:
Sandy De Groote
sgroote@uic.edu