The Pennsylvania Alliance for Design of Open Textbooks (PA-ADOPT) is made up of four participating institutions from Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) that are all regional and primarily undergraduate institutions, situated in Southeastern Pennsylvania. The PA-ADOPT project will address gaps in the open eTextbook marketplace, improve student learning, and mitigate rising student costs.
PA-ADOPT will address two emerging issues of regional and national concern. The first is the need to decrease cost of attendance for Pell eligible students and the second is the need to decrease the cost of attendance for majors needed to fill growing STEM-H (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Health Professions) workforce demands. To address these concerns, books produced by this project will focus on STEM-H and high-enrollment Writing courses, as the ability to write in a clear and organized manner is critical to the communication of scientific knowledge. We estimate that the PA-ADOPT project, could save students approximately $400 per year (one introductory and one advanced STEM-H course).
Goal
PA-ADOPT seeks to create a collection of high-quality eTextbooks that are freely disseminated using the principles of Open Educational Resources (OER).
Objective One
Training faculty throughout the four participating institutions to develop competencies needed to author open eTextbooks.
Objective Two
Establishment of a new process for copyediting and peer-review in addition to regular technical review of the open eTextbooks.
Objective Three
Establishment of a shared space across the PA-ADOPT institution for publishing and distributing the completed open eTextbooks with a primary focus on student and faculty accessibility.
Objective Four
Establishment of a new process for project evaluation that includes continuous improvement of the eTextbooks based on input from faculty and students.
