Professor encourages faculty to apply for educational resources grants

Affordable Learning Georgia is a University System of Georgia initiative that supports students through the adoption, adaptation and creation of affordable textbooks, including open educational resources.

Andrew Goss, PhD, interim associate provost for Teaching and Learning and a professor of history in the Department of History, Anthropology, and Philosophy in the Katherine Reese Pamplin College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, has been working on finding ways for Augusta University faculty and staff to use the high-quality resources in the classroom.

For the spring 2025 semester, 44.2% of available courses had textbook costs that were either low cost (less than $40) or free. Goss said AU ranked third among the 26 USG institutions by percentage of sections using affordable materials. This percentage also ranks higher compared to other research universities, surpassing the average of 26.1%.

“This is really a great result and shows the faculty commitment to incorporate affordable learning materials in their classes, and to thus encourage student success, a major goal for Augusta University,” Goss said.

AU faculty have been participating with ALG since its inception in 2014, saving over 17,000 students more than $2.3 million. One way to expand the use of affordable course materials, according to Goss, is to apply to ALG’s grant program, which is open to faculty from all USG institutions. Grants support transforming courses into having no-cost or low-cost course materials.

Goss said AU had five grants funded for the fall semester; the only USG school with more grants is Georgia Gwinnett College with six. AU’s funding surpassed $106,000 this round, bringing the total to more than $300,000 across 17 grants over the past few years.

Affordable Learning Georgia has asked each institution to have three champions who are in charge of leading the effort to campaign for ALG and OER usage, which includes communicating about the twice-annual grants for OER development. Goss is AU’s faculty champion, along with Whitney Russell, library champion, and Arthur Takahashi, design champion.

ALG’s next session, which includes information about the next round of grants, will be held at 11 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 8, via Microsoft Teams.