USF course to pilot first open-access e-textbook | The Oracle

"The day when students are no longer required to pay hundreds of dollars each semester for textbooks and course materials may finally be on the horizon. During his recent fall address to faculty, USF Provost Ralph Wilcox announced that the students enrolled in professor Jennifer Schneider’s Literature in Childhood Education course will use an open-access e-textbook to read digital literature collections, move through interactive lessons and visit children’s literature museums. 'If we can find a way to reduce the cost of textbooks for students and engage them more fully in the learning process, students of this generation, I think, are going to be all the more successful,' Wilcox said in an interview. Schneider, an associate professor in the College of Education, said her online class’s e-textbook originally began as a proposal to the Textbook Affordability Project (TAP).  TAP, focused on providing students and faculty with alternatives to full-priced textbooks, is a service of the USF Library, which partnered with USF Innovative Education to develop a digital open-access textbook program and Schneider’s resulting e-textbook ..."