Today’s Tuesday Tip is brought to you by our campus AL$ Coordinators, Edward Roualdes and Beth Shook.
Chico Affordable Learning Solutions (CAL$) provides resources to faculty regarding affordable course materials, including how to find and adopt quality zero-cost or low-cost textbooks and other materials, or design one’s own Open Educational Resources (OERs).
CAL$ has been on the Chico State campus since 2013, and originally went by the name Textbook Affordability Project (TAP) until 2018. The name Chico Affordable Learning Solutions was adopted to better align our campus effort with the Chancellor’s Office program, Affordable Learning Solutions. In the last four years, CAL$ has helped students save over $800,000.
From a spring 2019 CAL$ survey on our campus, we estimate that because of high textbook costs
- 52% of students go without the required textbook,
- 28% of students avoid or drop/withdraw from course,
- 55% of students alter their food or housing budget, and
- 24% of students feel their grade was negatively impacted.
CAL$ will lead a Friday Forum on October 9th (from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m.), covering the following topics:
- Describe CAL$ efforts on campus so far.
- Define Zero Cost Course Materials, its context in the state of California, and how to identify and report if your course meets the criteria.
- Discuss Open Educational Resources: What are OER and how do they differ from Open Access materials? What are the many benefits of using OER in the classroom.
- Explore some more popular OER repositories: how to find OER materials for your course.
- Highlight resources available through the Meriam Library that can be utilized in the classroom, including ebooks.
- Bookstore’s new Discover: more easily adopt books, including OER; October 16 deadline
The forum will be held via Zoom. Please visit the Friday Forums page for additional information. This session will be recorded and posted in the FDEV media channel.
