McHenry County College (via Public) / MCC Faculty Aim to Help Students Save Textbook Costs

"McHenry County College (MCC) students could see an estimated $400,000 total savings in textbook costs per academic year as a result of expert knowledge, research, and creativity by MCC faculty, who established a program to improve the quality of course content while reducing textbook costs.

A group of 23 faculty members, both full-time and adjunct, recently came together for what they dubbed a one-week Textbook Cost Reduction Camp. They delved into 13 courses with the goal of revitalizing course content to include current skills, materials, and trends. Some instructors were able to find more economical textbook options while others located open educational resources (OERs), new materials and internet resources, including multimedia for select courses. Open educational resources (OERs) are a popular trend in education that includes materials with open copyright licenses for the purpose of sharing, using, remixing, and reusing in teaching, learning and research for little or no cost. Examples may include textbooks, software, presentations, case studies, videos, pictures, simulations, games, and tests."