Rutgers Incentivizes Open, Affordable Textbooks

Rutgers University in New Jersey has launched its Open and Affordable Textbook (OAT) Project, which offers grants to faculty or department groups that switch to free, low-cost or open alternatives to traditional textbooks.

According to the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group (NJPIRG) — an independent student organization that campaigned for the OAT Project — students at Rutgers pay an average of $1,500 per year for textbooks, while students across the United States pay an average of $1,300 per year. The group also found that seven out of 10 students "skip required textbooks due to cost and nearly 60 percent wait for financial aid to pay for textbooks."

"We have reached a point where the cost of textbooks is limiting equity and access in education," said Lily Todorinova, coordinator of the OAT Project and undergraduate experience librarian at Rutgers.

The OAT Project will award $1,000 to 12 groups from Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, Rutgers University-Camden, Rutgers University-Newark and Rutgers University-New Brunswick to switch to open and affordable textbook alternatives. According to a news release from the university, open educational resources "are peer-reviewed, but are published under copyright licenses that allow students to read and download them for free or to print them at a significant cost savings."

One course at Rutgers — Aggregate Economics — switched to free and low-cost alternatives before the OAT Project. The traditional textbook for the course costs $89.99 in print or $69.99 as an e-book. However, through the Springer e-books collection of Rutgers University Libraries, students can download a free PDF of the textbook or they can purchase a paperback copy for $24.99. The OAT Project aims to help other courses make similar changes.

The OAT Project is funded by the university's Office of Information Technology and administered by Rutgers University Libraries.

About the Author

Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • glowing brain, connected circuits, and abstract representations of a book and graduation cap on a light gray gradient background

    Snowflake Launches Program to Upskill 100,000 People in Data and AI

    Cloud data platform Snowflake is embarking on an effort to train and certify more than 100,000 users on its AI Data Cloud by 2027. The One Million Minds + One Platform program will provide Snowflake-delivered courses, training materials, and free access to Snowflake software, at no cost to learners.

  • two abstract humanoid figures made of interconnected lines and polygons, glowing slightly against a dark gradient background

    Microsoft Introduces Copilot Chat Agents for Education

    Microsoft recently announced Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, a new pay-as-you-go offering that adds AI agents to its existing free chat tool for Microsoft 365 education customers.

  • hand touching glowing connected dots

    Registration Now Open for Tech Tactics in Education: Thriving in the Age of AI

    Tech Tactics in Education has officially opened registration for its May 7 virtual conference on "Thriving in the Age of AI." The annual event, brought to you by the producers of Campus Technology and THE Journal, offers hands-on learning and interactive discussions on the most critical technology issues and practices across K–12 and higher education.

  • Three cubes of noticeably increasing sizes are arranged in a straight row on a subtle abstract background

    A Sense of Scale

    Gardner Campbell explores the notion of scale in education and shares some of his own experience "playing with scale" — scaling up and/or scaling down — in an English course at VCU.