SPARC Projects

Connect OER

Open Education

North Carolina State University at Raleigh

Raleigh, NC, United States
Official Website @ncsulibraries

Type: Public 4-Year, Research University
Annual Enrollment: 33,989

  SPARC Member  

OER Webpage

Overview

Textbook Affordability:

At NC State Universty, our efforts to directly address the textbook problem on behalf of students and faculty began with a resolution from students to place one copy of every required textbook on print reserves. It has evolved into a multi-modal effort to provide short-term assistance to students while pursuing a long-term systemic change in the market and within our university. The NC State University Libraries pursues a number of approaches to aid students and instructors in dealing with the various challenges associated with textbooks, including:
- Partnering with the NC State Bookstore to purchase at least one copy of every required textbook and offering them through print reserves. Our Textbook Lending Program saves our students an average of more than $420,000 per semester.
- Licensing an experimental physics textbook for use in introductory courses in partnership with the NC State Physics Department, hosting its availability for all NC State users and providing a print-on-demand option through the Bookstore.

Alt-Textbook:

Recognizing financial pressures facing our students and the opportunity for the Libraries to address them through collaborating with faculty to seed innovation, in 2013 the NC State University Libraries began developing the Alt-Textbook program. The Alt-Textbook project focuses mainly on the creation of new open educational resources that engage with a wide array of technologies. Since 2013, the Alt-Textbook program has provided grants for 40 unique courses, and saved over one million dollars in textbook costs. The NC State Student Senate passed a resolution in support of the Alt-Textbook Project on March 25, 2015.

Creating OER

NC State is also committed to developing open resources, from individual open web resources to fully open textbooks designed in partnership with the UNC Press. Our most recent project is Dr. Michael Steer's series on Microwave and RF Design.

Open Textbook Network:

In 2016, NC State joined the Open Textbook Network to enhance the presence of open education on campus. Membership in the Open Textbook Network will facilitate more adoptions of existing open textbooks. The Open Textbook Network visited campus to train librarians, instructional designers, bookstore staff, and faculty in March 2017. Librarians in the NC State University Libraries also led efforts for the UNC System to join the Open Textbook Network via a system-wide membership, which began in Spring 2017.

UNC System Schools:

Librarians in the NC State University Libraries have been instrumental in pursuing a system-wide membership to the Open Textbook Network and strong supporters of NC LIVE's Open Education North Carolina project. which has saved more than $10 million since 2018.

In 2019 the Libraries partneres with peer instituions across the UNC System to create the Digital Course Enhancement Project. This project curates OER that complement high-demand courses most commonly offered across most UNC System institutions.

Campus Details

Campus Entities Most Active in Efforts Advancing OER:

Library Departments Active in Efforts Advancing OER:

Academic Subjects With Greatest OER Traction:

Mechanisms to Support OER Included in the Following:

OER Staff Location:




Point of Contact

Will Cross
Director, Copyright & Digital Scholarship Center, NCSU Libraries
@tceles_B_hsup