LLCC will receive nearly $60,000 to support the creation of an open educational resource (OER) textbook and ancillary materials for the course Human Nutrition. According to Tammy Kuhn-Schnell, dean of the LLCC Library, “We have gathered a team of people together who will work toward creating the OER and will use this as a test bed for developing a process supporting more OER creation and adoption in the future. Most importantly, we are working together to help our students save money and to make a dent in the equity gap.”

LLCC was among six Illinois colleges and universities receiving subgrants announced yesterday by the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI) and funded by the Open Textbooks Pilot Grant received from the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE) and the U.S. Department of Education.

Dr. Michele Leigh, CARLI Open Illinois Senior Coordinator, stated, “CARLI received excellent proposals to create Open Education textbooks and ancillary materials for courses with large enrollments and for courses in the focus area, ‘The Human Condition: Care, Development, and Lifespan.’ Open textbooks are free to students and free to be remixed and reused by others. Books created by awardees will utilize 3D printing as a pedagogical tool and will be available for use in summer 2024. The OER textbooks created through the subgrants will save Illinois college students the cost of the textbooks.”