The Textbook Affordability Fellows program is on pause indefinitely due to lack of funding. We are hopeful that adequate funding can be secured in the future so this highly successful, high impact program can be restarted.
Free-to-access textbooks and course materials have been demonstrated to directly impact student success by improving student performance and retention, especially for low-income and first-generation college students.
The Textbook Affordability Fellowship is designed to support faculty by providing resources needed to transform their courses using Open Educational Resources (OER) or other no-cost materials. This program combines a week-long training intensive with ongoing coaching, support, and community meetings throughout the textbook adoption/course transformation process. These opportunities are provided through a fully online and/or hybrid access model to facilitate access and engagement regardless of location.
Goals
Outcomes
Faculty Textbook Affordability Fellows must be an instructor of record in a regularly-offered course. Faculty of all types/ranks (e.g., tenure track, adjunct, or term), subject matter, and campuses (e.g., Goose Lake/Anchorage, Kenai Peninsula College, Kachemak Bay Campus, Prince William Sound Community College) are encouraged!
Successful completion of the program requires meeting the following objectives:
If you are committed to making learning affordable for UAA students, or are someone who is always looking for ways to improve your courses and your students' performance and learning outcomes, this program is for you.
Applying to the Textbook Affordability Fellowship is a competitive process. Applications are reviewed by a selection committee from the UAA Textbook Affordability Committee, and scored based on following criteria:
A typical Fellowship program includes the following deliverables and rough timeline*:
*The process of course transformation and delivery is different for all courses. As a result, faculty Fellows are expected to offer their transformed course at least once during the Fellowship year.
This program was initially developed by UAA Textbook Affordability co-chairs Dr. Veronica Howard (Associate Professor, Psychology) and D'Arcy Hutchings (Associate Professor, Library) in close collaboration with Academic Innovations & eLearning.
Funding for this program in 2019-2022 was provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture, specifically their Alaska Native-Serving and Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions Education Competitive Grants Program with contributions from Academic Innovations & eLearning and the Consortium Library.