If you are a student wondering why you have a "Digital Textbook Fee," CarmenBooks has likely helped cover some of your costs. CarmenBooks is an affordability initiative that works with publishers to provide discounts for digital textbooks. On average, CarmenBooks are 75-80% off the original retail prices.
The Affordable Learning Exchange (ALX) has been awarding grants for the past seven years to instructors who want to transform their courses. Grant winners were primarily focused on reducing the cost of their course materials for students. “While these goals remain at the core of the ALX mission, the murder of George Floyd in 2020 prompted us to [...] expand our scope to encompass broader social justice topics," said Ashley Miller. Several instructors at Ohio State share Miller's passion and have taken the opportunity ALX provides to infuse their courses with racial justice.
Working alongside her lab manager and undergraduate students, Dr. Elizabeth Kirby is in the process of compiling an Introduction to Behavioral Neuroscience textbook. The previous textbook for this course was expensive, and Dr. Kirby’s media has already been able to save students more than $20,000.
College tuition alone is expensive enough for students, in addition to other incidental costs like textbooks and supplemental materials. All the extras can be barriers to entry for budget-conscious students who want to take courses that will expand their...
The Affordable Learning Exchange (ALX) has awarded grants to 21 instructors for 2022. This new cohort is planning to use those funds to support affordability and racial justice projects for courses at Columbus, Lima and Newark campuses. These projects cover a wide range of disciplines—from math to music, art and design to architecture, sociology to psychology. The hard work of these instructors over the next year will result in over $80,000 in direct savings to students!
Since 2018, Associate Professor Sébastien Proulx has been using Affordable Learning Exchange (ALX) grants to reimagine his courses in the Department of Design. Proulx is using his 2020 Racial Justice grant to add a course module around decolonizing design, a discipline that is traditionally Eurocentric. Proulx hopes to help make diversity and ethnic issues a normal part of the conversation and study of design, rather than an afterthought.
The Affordable Learning Exchange (ALX) is requesting proposals to participate in its next cohort.
ALX awards grants to instructors who want to transform their courses using open and affordable materials. Any course at The Ohio State University is eligible for...
The Affordable Learning Exchange (ALX) will be requesting proposals for their latest grant opportunity beginning September 10 . ALX awards grants to instructors who want to transform their courses using open and affordable course materials. A variety of grants will be available to meet the financial and support needs of a wide range of projects—from adopting existing open materials to re-imagining an entire course.
Millar saw an ALX grant as a way to bring the online course materials for his MUSIC 1101 class to a higher standard, and to improve the experience for students of all majors to critically engage with and participate in music.
Class is back in session, but have you thought about how you are going to pay for your textbooks this school year? Before you go running to the bookstore, check out the different services University Libraries has to offer.
