Congrats to 2021 Open Textbook Faculty Incentive Program awardee Dr. Kate Warpeha!
Dr. Kate Warpeha is one of 9 UIC faculty to be recognized in the 2021 Open Textbook Faculty Incentive Program! She has been recognized for her innovative work to create resources for BIOS 222: Cell Biology.
"New animations for cell signaling and cytoskeleton and development & cancer are needed as well as free resources for this area of biology" - Dr. Kate Warpeha
About the Open Textbook Faculty Incentive Program:
This program encourages faculty to use and develop open educational resources (OER) as alternatives to traditional textbooks for undergraduate courses. The incentive program is part of UIC’s student success initiative and was developed in response to student concerns about the high cost of course materials.
The awarded faculty members will each receive a portion of the funds allocated for this initiative by the Library and the Office of the Provost. This year, the Undergraduate Student Government also generously donated an additional $10,000 to the fund, making a total of $30,000 available. Faculty members’ plans include adopting open textbooks and other open education resources, modifying open textbooks and creating new open access supplemental material. Instructors will be able to use resources more pertinent to their courses and tailor exercises and quizzes to their syllabi. Applications were received from the colleges of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Engineering and Business Administration. More than 1130 students who enroll in the faculty awardees’ courses could potentially save approximately $260,000 by using the OER materials instead of purchasing new textbooks.
These resources will be incorporated into the curriculum by Fall 2021. For more information on the Open Textbook Faculty Incentive Program, visit go.library.uic.edu/oer.