Press Releases
Media Release | View PDF Version
University System of Ohio Faculty Recognized by State Leaders for Making Textbooks More Affordable
For Immediate Release | March 24, 2009
COLUMBUS – Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor Eric D. Fingerhut today announced the winners of the University System of Ohio's first "Faculty Innovator Awards" given to 10 faculty members and teams recognized for work they have done to introduce digital course materials in the classroom that enrich learning and make college textbooks more affordable for their students. Nine of the 10 awardees were in town to be recognized by Chancellor Fingerhut and Governor Ted Strickland, as well as on the floor of the Ohio General Assembly.
"Making college more affordable, including leveraging technology to reduce out-of-pocket textbook costs for students, is a priority of the University System of Ohio," Chancellor Fingerhut said. "We commend the awardees for developing outstanding, affordable materials for their students and want to share their 21st century ideas and practices with others across the system."
Many awardees completely replaced printed textbooks in the classroom and made digital materials available at no cost to students. Some offered students online eTextbooks and class notes, audio recordings, music files, and video/Flash animations that are not available for purchase elsewhere. Other awardees taught students how to use the latest digital technology in the classroom, including the social bookmarking of web pages, and have taught other faculty how to use technology to innovate in their own classrooms.
Students impacted include those taking the awardees' Accounting, Teacher Education, Educational Psychology, Physics, Music, Electronics Engineering, Biology, Nursing, and Computer Science courses in community college and university classrooms across the state.
Award Recipients
The following faculty received awards after a panel of independent reviewers determined their practices were innovative and saved students money. The practices employed are also easily replicable across the University System.
- Jason T. Abbit, Ph.D. , Miami University – Jason Abbit is an assistant professor in Educational Psychology on Miami University's main campus. He was recognized for his courses for Teacher Education majors, where he completely replaced printed textbooks with digital content using a "social bookmarking system." Social bookmarking is a method for learners to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web pages on the Internet.
- Michele D. Dickey, Ph.D., Miami University – Michele Dickey is an associate professor in industrial design and technology on Miami University's main campus. Students from more than 20 different teacher education programs can take her Integrating Technology for Education, a unique Web-based course that leverages the benefits of technology to reduce textbook and technology costs for students and provides custom video/flash animations that are not available to purchase elsewhere. Prior to the introduction of this course, students were required to purchase one to two textbooks for the course at a cost of $50-$100. The course, which centers on four educational technology-based modules in which students design lesson plans and create educational media, also reduces the demand for technology resources (labs) at the university.
- Robert Huber, Ph.D. , Bowling Green State University – Robert Huber is a biology professor on the main campus of Bowling Green State University. In his Animal Behavior course, Professor Huber has completely replaced printed textbooks. Students use a free online textbook he created and posted at Wikibooks. http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Animal_Behavior. Professor Huber provides additional rich course material at no cost to students, including online media and lecture note archives.
- Janet E. Hurn, M.S., Miami University Middletown – Janet Hurn is a senior instructor in physics on Miami University's regional Middletown campus, who also serves as director of the Miami University Center of Online Learning, As a faculty member, Janet has been providing both video and audio recordings of course content to students, allowing them to review material as often as needed to maximize learning. Audio and video materials have also been transitioned from CD format to web-based podcasts and vodcasts (even less expensive). Anecdotal evidence indicates that students find Janet's videos extremely useful and, in particular, increase their understanding of the more complex concepts covered in physics. In addition to her own courses, she has assisted faculty developing their digital content by offering easy-to-use tech solutions that require minimal time commitment, finding low-cost options for recording digital content (eliminating the need to purchase costly subscription-based services.), and encouraging faculty to work with library staff to find digital resources to supplement or replace textbooks. Several faculty have opted to completely replace textbooks with materials available through online databases. This not only reduces student costs, but also ensures students have access to more timely material.
- Bonnie Kirkpatrick, M.S. , The Ohio State University – Bonnie Kirkpatrick is a clinical instructor of nursing at The Ohio State University. She teaches various nursing courses, but her impact has reached even more students across the campus as faculty replicate her digital teaching strategies. She has eliminated the use of costly course packets for her students, instead providing hospital manuals, procedures, and orientation materials online in an electronic format that students can read electronically or access from their PDAs or laptop computers. She encourages students to use electronic journals, federally funded Web sites, and publically-accessible Web sites like WebMD to create nursing practice and recommendations for nurses and clinical units that act as hosts for undergraduate students. She has also helped the college save money by using affordable simulators, instead of costly interactive ones, and providing background and extensive information about the patient to make them rich, learning
- Nick Reeder, Ph.D., Sinclair Community College – Nick Reeder is a professor in Electronics Engineering Tech/Electrical & Electronics Repair at Sinclair Community College. He developed four online lab manuals for Electric Circuits and a LabVIEW simulation software course. Each lab manual has seven to nine experiments with detailed step-by-step instructions, illustrations, and data sheets and skills assessment questions at the end of each experiment. The lab manuals are available online and are free to registered students. The cost savings per student is about $200. Dr. Reeder has also developed 14 Interactive Flash Games (as part of the Ohio Learning Network grant) to help students master the basics of electrical circuits and use of measuring instruments like Digital Multimeter and Oscilloscope. He has also developed a Phasor Calculator. These interactive games help students practice what they have learned in the classroom and assess their mastery of the subject matter. He has also developed end of the topic online self-tests that provide instant feedback about their learning.
- Mark A. Thomas, M.S., University of Cincinnati-Raymond Walters College – Mark Thomas is an associate professor of computer science at the University of Cincinnati's Raymond Walters College regional campus. Professor Thomas has produced online text for two of his courses, the first as early as 2003 and the second in 2007. The eTextbooks are comprehensive, well-organized and student friendly in their layout, writing and illustrations. Given that most of his students are in programs that require both courses, it is reasonable to assume that each student realizes a savings of $200-$250 in textbook costs.
- Charles M. Savage, M.M., Ohio University Zanesville – Charles Savage is a music professor at Ohio University's regional campus in Zanesville. He has introduced digital content in his Introduction to Music Theory (Music 100) class, and replaced expensive traditional printed textbooks with digital chapter class notes, workbooks, and sound and music files, which enrich learning and save students money.
- Marc H. Smith, M.S., The Ohio State University – Marc Smith is an influential innovator in the area of online learning in The Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business. He is being recognized for the work that he has done in the area of accounting, where he has taken a lead role in migrating much of his course delivery method from the traditional face-to-face classroom to distance learning using a series of online video lectures. Each video is designed to simplify the complexity and reduce any confusion for the students. He specifically designs each learning module to include self-assessments to allow students to test their mastery of the content of the module prior to taking a forma l test; to deliver content in its totality without need for textbooks or other ancillary material; to be enabled for total security [password authenticated learning management system]; and to allow the viewing of modules and videos anywhere, anytime.
- Bruce W. Weide, Ph.D. and Timothy J. Long, Ph.D. (co-recipients), The Ohio State University – In The Ohio State University's introductory computer science and engineering courses (a three-quarter sequence taken by about 250 students per year), the awardees have put all of the course materials online where students can access everything using a web browser. If they wish, students can still buy paper copies of the two textbooks (of which professors Weide and Long are the authors), but this purchase is optional because the books and all other course materials are also available online. There is no cost to students for course materials, and this innovation is made possible by using web-based technology.
For more information on steps the University System of Ohio is taking to make textbooks more affordable, see http://uso.edu/opportunities/textbooks/index.php.
Contact: Michael Chaney, Chief Communications Officer, Ohio Board of Regents
Office: (614) 752-9480 Cell: (614) 633-5909
E-mail: mchaney@regents.state.oh.us
###
