A trio of UMW faculty members has received VIVA Open Grants for adopting, adapting and creating open and affordable course materials from the Virtual Library of Virginia that can be made available to students at little or no cost. These grants work to save students money on expensive textbooks and help professors enhance the knowledge and learning experiences they’re able to offer through their courses.
College of Business Assistant Professor Samira Fallah, Professor of Computer Science Stephen Davies and Associate Professor of Communication Adria Goldman received 2023 awards that together represent more than $72,000 in student cost avoidance throughout a five-year period.
“Congratulations to these professors!” University Librarian Amy Filiatreau said in an email to UMW teaching faculty. “Thanks to all who strive to make educational materials more open and affordable for our students and other researchers.”
VIVA grants support a range of possibilities, Filiatreau said, from adopting existing open educational resources (OER) to creating new materials, like the five open-source textbooks Davies has penned himself to make “knowledge freely available,” he said.
The VIVA Open Adopt Grant program provides support for the time it takes to integrate existing open or no-cost materials into a syllabus and to ensure that the results of those efforts are available to Virginia educators. Statewide, the 2023 awards have an anticipated student cost avoidance of nearly one-and-a-half million dollars and the power to impact more than 16,000 students.
Below, the winning UMW faculty members share their thoughts on the value of VIVA resources and why they pursued funding:
College of Business Assistant Professor Samira Fallah
Resource to be adopted: OpenStax Principles of Management
Course in which it will be used: MGMT301: Principles of Management
Five-year student cost avoidance: $49,700
Students impacted over five years: 700
Q: How do you feel this resource adds value to the Principles of Management course?
A: First and foremost, it contributes to the improvement of my students’ learning experience. When students are required to purchase costly textbooks, instructors often feel obligated to assign activities available within these books. Unfortunately, many of the activities integrated into Principles of Management textbooks tend to rely on short-answer or multiple-choice questions, which are not conducive to optimal learning of class concepts, especially in a course with a significant practical aspect like Principles of Management. The high cost of textbooks often restricts my flexibility in incorporating more innovative content such as cases or simulations, which, though often not free, play a crucial role in delivering an effective learning experience for my students. Using an OER resource facilitates incorporations of more practical material in my course.
Second, it helps students financially. Typically, students enrolled in my Principles classes are sophomores and juniors, many of whom are still without substantial income. Even those who have part-time jobs often earn modest wages. By offering them access to textbooks at no cost, my intention is to alleviate some financial strain from students, providing them with the opportunity to concentrate more on learning the course content.
Q: What made you decide to pursue the grant?
A: In addition to the benefits of OER that I previously mentioned, I believe that the adoption of OER is in alignment with the fundamental mission of COB and UMW. As an AACSB-accredited college, we have a commitment to delivering pedagogy that creates a meaningful societal impact. Moreover, serving as a public liberal arts institution, our foremost dedication lies in the pursuit of teaching excellence and we uphold the principle of Inclusive Excellence, with a commitment to ensuring that every member of our community has equal access to opportunities for participation and the essential resources required for achieving success. I believe adoption of OER is poised to promote equitable access to educational materials, ultimately fostering a more inclusive and accessible learning environment for my students. Consequently, I have made the decision to transition to OER in my Principles of Management course. Because of the valuable opportunity and support provided by the VIVA Open Adopt grant to facilitate this switch, I applied for it.
Q: What are your thoughts on being named a grant recipient?
A: I am sincerely honored and deeply grateful to have been named a recipient of this grant, which enables me to be a part of its significant impact on students’ equitable access to essential learning materials.
Professor of Computer Science Stephen Davies
Resource to be adopted: Database Design – 2nd Edition
Course in which it will be used: CPSC/DATA 350: Applications of Databases
Five-year student cost avoidance: $14,998
Students impacted over 5 Years: 250
Q: How do you feel this resource adds value to the Applications of Databases course?
A: Databases is a rapidly developing field, with new innovations (and paradigms, and technologies) being introduced all the time. There really isn’t a good, stable textbook for my needs in that class, where we cover everything from the relational model to more recent, NoSQL databases. I’ll be cobbling together two sources for the fall; one is the open-source textbook by Adrienne Watt (for the first half of the course) and the other is an open-source book that I’m currently writing, to be used in the second half.
Q: What made you decide to pursue the grant?
A: I saw it advertised by the UMW Library folks and it sounded like a good idea.
Q: What are your thoughts on being named a grant recipient?
A: I think it’s great! Textbooks are generally way too expensive. I think that as far as possible, knowledge should be made freely available, which is why I’ve written five open-source textbooks myself, which I and others at UMW use in our classes.
Associate Professor of Communication Adria Goldman
Resource to be adopted: Communication in the Real World
Course in which it will be used: COMM 340: Introduction to Communication and Rhetoric
Five-year student cost avoidance: $7,750
Students impacted over five years: 125
Q: How do you feel this resource adds value to the Introduction to Communication and Rhetoric course?
A: The text, Communication in the Real World: An Introduction to Communication Studies, will provide students with a clear overview of human communication. The adaptable nature of the text allows me to thread in material that is especially relevant and interesting to our students. The free text will couple nicely with the online academic research from the library that we use in the course. With the resources combined, students will be able to successfully complete the course without purchasing a textbook. They will also be able to keep the materials and revisit them as needed.
Q: What made you decide to pursue the grant?
A: I am growing more and more passionate about OERs. Textbooks are so expensive, and I would like to be able to eliminate that cost for students, when possible. When a colleague shared their experiences with the grant, I was intrigued to apply and use the time and resources to revamp my COMM 340: Introduction to Communication and Rhetoric course.
Q: What are your thoughts on being named a grant recipient?
A: What an honor! I am also excited to join my fellow recipients in reducing the cost of course resources for students.
