TRUSU launches Open Textbook campaign to save students $300,000

 Kamloops – On August 30, 2016, the Thompson Rivers University Students’ Union (TRUSU) launched its campaign to encourage and support Thompson Rivers University (TRU) faculty to create and adopt open textbooks, which are free for students. The campaign aims to increase student savings from the use of open textbooks to $300,000.

“The rising price of textbooks is becoming a significant factor in the unaffordability of post-secondary education” said Michael Zaitlin, Chair of the TRUSU Student Caucus, “We are excited to realize the potential that open textbooks present to significantly reduce students’ costs while putting more control over course materials back into the hands of faculty.”

The BC Open Textbook Project offers textbooks licensed under open copyright and available online to be used by faculty and students. Online versions are free, and print versions are available for a small fee to cover the cost of production, significantly reducing students’ textbook costs. At the same time, faculty have the flexibility under this type of licensing to customize their course material.

Students will be reaching out to faculty members to encourage them to consider adopting from amongst the over 150 open textbooks currently available through the provincial program. A proposal for a TRU Open Textbook Fellowship to fund faculty members who create new or adapted open textbooks will also be advanced with a supporting student petition.

“We are calling on individual professors to leverage their textbook choice to provide students much needed savings and to tailor materials to the curriculum,” said Zaitlin, “and we are also looking to the university to take a leadership role that reflects our unique mandate for open education.”

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For more information contact:

Check out the Open Textbooks Website here