Affordable Learning Georgia was launched last year by
the University System of Georgia to create a platform for the free online texts
educators were developing. The state Board of Regents kicked in $2.5 million to
the effort with a goal of creating content for 26 basic college courses all
students at any state public institution could take online.
Small grants were made available to professors creating
online content. They ended up with resources for 22 of the 26 classes, called
e-Core courses that were targeted. That will add up to $2.7 million in savings
on textbooks, according to the chief academic officer of the University System
of Georgia.
Faculty at the University of North Georgia, Dahlonega, generated
digital content for 10 courses from grants they received. Its estimated students
will save about $1 million next year using that content.
Affordable Learning Georgia is already upping the ante.
A second goal of the initiative was to create online textbooks for the 50
courses with the highest enrollment, but administrators now want content for
the top 100 classes.
“I believe it’s going to be the future of delivering
content to students, especially for these kinds of courses,” Mark Goodroe,
professor of mathematics at the University of North Georgia, told the digital news platform Styrk.
