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Photo Illustration by Kayla Stroud/THE SPECTATOR

Students Save With Open Textbooks

Written by: Kayla Stroud, Web Editor

The University System of Georgia and college professors throughout the state working to provide cheaper textbooks for students.

The new Affordable Learning Georgia initiative will give students the opportunity to save big by supplying them with affordable textbook alternatives. ALG helps students by supporting Open Educational Resource’s want for the adoption, adaptation, creation and use of materials in GALILEO and USG libraries.

According to Jeff Gallant, the ALG’s visiting program officer for open educational resources, the average annual student’s course material can cost upwards to $1,200. However, with this program, students will be assigned open textbooks online, free of charge.

Even if only one course took advantage of these textbooks, students will still save exponentially.

“Open textbooks have the potential to save students $100 on average, per course, per semester,” Gallant said. “This means that even if every student had just one open textbook course per semester, this would save VSU students a total of over $2 million in just one year. “

It isn’t mandatory; it is solely the professors’ choice as to whether they agree to take part in the program. For years, professors throughout campus have been using their own resources to make no-cost material for lectures or lesson plans.

However, Gallant says that they are more than welcome to take advantage of this new opportunity.

“We would like as many of those instructors to contact ALG and let us know,” Gallant said. “We could help them make their materials even more widely available and therefore more impactful for learners everywhere.”

With open licensing, the books can be to be freely shared, adapted and implemented within school courses. OER allows both students and professors to use and reuse these materials.

“Anyone from the USG can use the textbook and modify it for themselves for that core course. [..] You’re allowed to reuse, revise, remix and redistribute,” Deborah Van Petten, VSU’s reference collection coordinator, said.

Some students seemed to agree with the idea when they were questioned about the program. However, others, like Carrington Ware, a 21-year-old art major, had a more neutral stance.

“I personally wouldn’t like it,” Ware said. “I like to actually flip the page when I study. But, it’s a free book, so I can’t argue with that.”

Since this is a fairly new program, there are still a few kinks that need to be worked out. Though, judging by the progress that it has shown so far, it’s only a matter of time before ALG becomes the norm on college campuses throughout the state.

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