Alt Textbook Project Boosts Sustainability In Classroom While Reducing Costs

"So what does a student with a limited budget do? In 2014, nearly 7 in 10 college students reported not purchasing a textbook because they could not afford it, and most of those students feared it would impact their performance in a course.

That’s why NCSU Libraries created the Alt Textbook Project, which provides mini-grants and support for faculty to adopt, adapt or create free and open alternatives to textbooks.

'This [project] is about creating free and better resources … that make sure students can afford to participate in higher education while also making instruction better and more powerful,' said Will Cross, Director of NCSU Libraries’ Copyright and Digital Scholarship Center that coordinates the project.

Open education resources range from websites and multimedia to digitized databases and journal articles already available to students through the Libraries. In 2015, Alt Textbook helped nine NC State courses transition to open resources, generating $250,000 in avoided textbook costs."