| Overall Rating | Gold |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 72.67 |
| Liaison | Aurora Sharrard |
| Submission Date | Feb. 13, 2024 |
University of Pittsburgh
IN-41: Textbook Affordability
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
0.50 / 0.50 |
Nick
Goodfellow Sustainability Coordinator Dining Services |
Does the institution host a peer-to-peer textbook exchange program, textbook lending library, or alternate textbook project?:
A brief description of the textbook exchange program, textbook lending library, or alternate textbook project:
The University of Pittsburgh’s University Library Service (and most academic departments) have an extensive textbook reserve system that allows students to check out textbooks on a short-term basis.
Additionally, to reduce textbook costs, Pitt’s Office of the Provost encourages instructors to incorporate increasing volumes of open education resources (OER). The Provost’s Standing Committee on OER coordinates, administers, and supports the Provost’s OER Grant program, which incentivizes faculty by providing funding to adapt, adopt, and create OER for use in Pitt courses.
Students can also identify classes using open education resources in the Pitt Class Search, which includes a searchable OER course attribute.
Does the institution provide incentives for academic staff that explicitly encourage the authorship, peer review, and/or adoption of open access textbooks?:
A brief description of the incentives to encourage the authorship, peer review, and/or adoption of open access textbooks:
Following a Student Government Board resolution in 2018 supporting an expansion of Open Educational Resources (OER) and open textbooks to control costs, the Office of the Provost named OER a priority and formed the “OER Standing Committee” to provide a targeted and sustained OER awareness program to instructors.
In addition, the Office of the Provost created the “Open Education Resource Grants” program to support the development of open educational resources to enhance the educational experience of Pitt students and provide faculty with the ability to customize their course materials.
The August 2023 Report of the Provost’s OER Committee estimates that funded projects have impacted ~33,000 Pitt students between 2018 and 2023, with estimated cumulative savings of $3,024,000 (a 1,213% return on investment). Moreover, the impact goes beyond monetary in supporting faculty designing educational resources for their students that are more aligned with student needs than what is commercially available.
Website URL where information about the textbook affordability incentives is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
University Library System’s Open Educational Resources webpage - https://www.library.pitt.edu/open-educational-resources
Office of the Provost’s Open Educational Resources webpage - https://www.provost.pitt.edu/OER
August 2023 Report to the Provost: Provost’s Standing Committee on Open Educational Resources - https://www.provost.pitt.edu/sites/default/files/OER%20Committee%20report%20summer%202023.pdf
University Library System’s Open Educational Resources webpage - https://www.library.pitt.edu/open-educational-resources
Office of the Provost’s Open Educational Resources webpage - https://www.provost.pitt.edu/OER
August 2023 Report to the Provost: Provost’s Standing Committee on Open Educational Resources - https://www.provost.pitt.edu/sites/default/files/OER%20Committee%20report%20summer%202023.pdf
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