Sharman Receives Funding to Lower Student Textbook Costs

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Russell Sharman

Russell L. Sharman, professional practice assistant professor for the U of A Department of Communication, is the recipient of this semester's Open Educational Course Materials Conversion Program funding. He will create an open textbook for COMM 1033: Basic Course In Arts: Film Lecture, in which approximately 400 students per semester enroll. The book currently assigned to the course costs $110 new or $83 used. Sharman plans to create a dynamic, openly licensed text that can easily change and grow as film industry trends and technology evolve.

Each semester since 2017, the University Libraries and Global Campus have offered funding for U of A faculty to convert materials for their courses into open educational resources, or OER. Learn more about the U of A's course materials conversion program on the OER webpage. 

"We are pleased to help make another university core course available our students with zero textbook costs," said Elaine Thornton, open education and distance learning librarian. "Dr. Sharman's knowledge of film making, film history and teaching will prove an invaluable asset to the production of this work. OER for film courses is almost non-existent. His work will provide an appreciated resource for the global OER community." 

This course will join four other university core courses with reported OER adoptions. Open materials are already being used in ASTR 2003, PHYS2054 and HIST 2003, and open materials are being created for STAT 2303. Faculty who teach courses using OER as the primary assigned text are encouraged to fill out this form to improve the university's ability to track OER usage.

Members serving on the OER Team and Campus Advisory Group for the 2018-19 academic year include Elaine Thornton, Stephanie Pierce, Lora Lennertz and Melody Herr of the University Libraries; Scott Wright and Miran Kang of the Global Campus; faculty members Margaret Butcher and Michael Thomsen; Trevor Francis, associate vice provost and director of student success; Ricky Carney of the University Bookstore; graduate students Marei Houpert and Cayla Jones; and undergraduate student Jared Pinkerton. Mary Thompson Price, Elaine Terrell and Charini I. Urteaga of the Global Campus participated as instructional design consultants on OER reviews and consultations.