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The Affordable Materials Project in conjunction with Subject Librarians went on a Listening Tour to learn about faculty course materials practices, challenges, and concerns.  During the fall of 2021 and spring of 2022, AMP members and librarians spoke with faculty teaching high enrollment, introductory courses that typically use commercial textbooks.

We had conversations about how textbooks and homework systems are chosen and used and what services might promote the use of high-quality, low-cost textbooks and open educational resources (OER).   The Listening Tour’s findings and recommendations are now available here.

By Linda Hauck

Earth Day 2022’s theme is “Invest in our Planet.”  The first Earth Day in 1970 took place at a time of crisis not unlike our own;  Smog, oil spills, pesticide use, open space loss, and untreated industrial pollution threatened human health and wildlife. That first Earth Day led to bipartisan support for the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and passage of numerous environmental laws.

Photo by Marcell Viragh on Unsplash

Over 50 years later, the climate crisis threatens humans, animals, and plant life and with extreme temperatures, wildfires, drought, rising sea levels, pandemics, and more.  Businesses, which have often preferred market based responses to environmental pressure over regulatory ones, are taking steps reduce their carbon footprints and to minimize exposure to environmental risks. Likewise, investors are seeking ways to distinguish between levels of corporate environmental commitment.

Morningstar Investment Research Center is a great place for environmentally conscious investors to get started. You can find daily articles under the Articles & Videos’ “Sustainability Matters” tab.  The screening tools for mutual funds, exchange traded funds, and equities all include a Sustainability Rating to help investors evaluate potential assets on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) dimensions. Check out the methodology before using any rating scheme.

FactSet (Contact Finance Lab for to register for remote access), a database provided by the Gmelich Lab for Financial Markets, offers multiple ESG databases covering not only funds and equities but bonds as well. ESG ratings can be used in the screener, company/security, and portfolio monitor. The Truvlau Labs is their premier ESG data provider that applies artificial intelligence to business news, trade journals & blogs, watchdog groups, and social media to arrive at disaggregated ratings.

Investing in financial markets isn’t the only way to back environmentally friendly businesses. Consumers can do so through thoughtful choices and here are just a few library resources to help do just that.

• Beyond Greenwash
• Food, Environment and Climate Change: Justice at the Intersections
• An Introduction to Sustainability: Environmental, Social and Personal Perspectives
• Sustainable Home: Practical Projects, Tips and Advice For Maintaining a More Eco-Friendly Household
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
• An (Almost) Zero Waste Life: Learning How to Embrace Less to Live More

Linda Hauck is Business Librarian at Falvey Library.

The OER (Open Educational Resources) Faculty Adoption Award Forum, held virtually on March 9, highlighted the diverse and flexible nature of openly licensed course materials and shined a light on student’s preference for free digital materials.

Professor Jeanne Liedtka, JD, received the award to transition the Law of Contracts and Sales elective to using OER. Not a newcomer to OER, she had previously used OER in the popular Intellectual Property (IP) Law for Business course. Liedtka compared and contrasted both successful experiences. IP is a dynamic branch of law heavily dependent on case law.  A law school text, Boyle & Jenkins’ Intellectual Property:  Law and the Information Society: Cases and Materials, served as the backbone of the course.  Her undergraduate student’s weren’t phased by materials designed for law school students, but Liedtka did go the extra mile to supplement the text with articles centering business perspectives on IP issues and recent cases in the public domain.  Liedtka noted that contract law is less dynamic field, and she had well developed lectures notes that served as the core of the course, so Introduction to Contracts, Sales & Product Liability, written for undergraduates, was a serviceable reference.  She encouraged faculty interested in exploring OER adoptions to contact their subject librarians who can map available OER to course outlines and syllabi.

Valentina DeNardis, PhD, shared her personal and professional reasons for adopting Dickinson College Commentaries, to the Classics course, Readings in Authors. As a first generation student herself, Dr. DeNardis recalled feeling overwhelmed by the cost of texts and being stressed when the edition of a text she needed to use far exceeded the price for alternatives. In a grad school class, where she met her husband, she had to purchase a very costly scholarly monograph that was never even used, so now they have two pristine copies in their home. From a teaching perspective, Dr. DeNardis noted that affordability isn’t the only reason to choose openly licensed materials. Digital is convenient, flexible, and accessible. Because classics studies require a wide range of very expensive materials including texts, dictionaries, grammar books, translations, and essays, the Commentaries supplemented with Library-subscribed content was ideal.  Dr. DeNardis built a Microsoft OneNote notebook to deliver the content and as a forum for student collaboration.

A panel of students spoke to the social and academic benefits that flowed from using OER. Olivia noted that the online platform was better for visual learners because it facilitated looking up maps, videos, and images. Lauren felt that digital materials made it easier to do translations, because she could easily toggle between dictionaries. Anna liked digital sticky notes, which are environmentally friendly! From a pocket book point of view, Valeria noted that in fields with rapidly evolving developments having a current text is important, but it is distressing that the resale value of commercial textbooks diminish fast due to constant updates. Tuition increases and expensive textbooks can make it hard for some students to stay in college. She felt that using OER allowed everyone to be in the conversation and made class debates fun.

When asked about their overall experience with college textbooks, Olivia recommended frequent and early alerts about required books because discounted books sell out fast and delays in shipping can cause students to fall behind in their work. It was a relief to Lauren to find out on the first day of class that she didn’t have to pay for any books. Valeria said “eliminating the economic barrier of buying books gets everyone involved..[which] helps professors and students.” She observed that students can be discouraged from taking a class or  minoring in a subject because of expensive materials, whereas free or low cost books promote exploration. One student asked if professors are required to assign textbooks, even when they don’t intend to rely on them heavily, and wished that they would let students know up front when that is the case.

Dr. DeNardis explained that she hopes the effort she made finding and using affordable materials will serve as a model for her peers. Liedtka explained that at VSB faculty teaching core courses are encouraged to use the same text to ensure a consistent student experience, and that faculty have the freedom to design the course around the textbook, sometimes using relying on it heavily or sometimes only as a reference.

The forum concluded with a discussion about how to advance the use of OER at Villanova. On the demand side, both Dr. DeNardis and Liedtka recommended awards and grants, faculty surveys, forums and programs, and library services. On the demand side, both suggested encouragement and support for Villanova faculty authoring OER. They observed that authoring OER ensures the availability of great content and noted that it would enhance University branding and raise the profile of programs.

The 2022-23 Faculty Adoption Grant is accepting applications.  Visit this site to apply.

A recording of the OER Faculty Adoption Award Forum is available.

Linda Hauck is the Business Librarian at Falvey Memorial Library and Affordable Materials Project member.

The Affordable Materials Project (AMP) is offering five grants in the amount of $1000 to tenure track or continuing faculty to encourage the adoption of an open educational resource (OER) as the primary course material for a class offered in the 2022-23 academic year. OER are free for students, accessible and digital (but may be printed as well). OER are not simply free, but carry Creative Commons licenses that allow for copying, revising, and remixing. Many OER incorporate interactive features and  multimedia, integrate with Blackboard and come with test banks and solutions.

This grant recognizes the time and effort that faculty invest in revising syllabi, lesson plans, learning activities and assessments. One of recipients remarked, “One of the nice things is that [the OER I used] comes in many different formats and you can download and use it without an internet connection.  I had to supplement with my own notes, slides and figures.  The grant comes in handy to hire students to help.”

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Students benefit financially, educationally, socially and emotionally from the use of OER. One faculty member observed, “By controlling the environment and giving [the students] the free materials, they knew where to go and we had this baseline and that helped tremendously.” And a Villanova student said, “One of the most consistent stressors I have had in my college experience so far is financing the cost of books…Having online access without any worry of cost or rental due dates impacted my great class experience and achievement.”   

While another shared, “Freshman year it took me almost to the midterm to be able to buy a certain textbook. I still use that textbook now. Some textbooks are crucial to your major. Without that textbook I had a D on my midterm. After buying it I was just glued to it.  It has so many markings on it.”

The OER Adoption grant contributes to Villanova’s goals for academic excellence, and to meet 100% of financial need by lowering the overall cost of enrollment. OER supports equity, leveling the playing field across economically disadvantaged and financially privileged students by giving all students free access to the required course materials. 

Additional information about eligibility, grant requirements and the review process are posted on the application page, open until May 1, 2022. Learn more about the 2020 and 2021 grant recipients here.

Please join the Affordable Materials Project (AMP) in celebrating faculty members, Jeanne Liedtka, JD, and Valentina DeNardis, PhD, awarded Open Educational Resource (OER) Faculty Adoption Grants for 2021-22 in a virtual forum on Wednesday, March 9, from 3-4 p.m. Faculty will share their insights into the benefits and challenges posed by redesigning their courses using free, openly licensed textbooks. Students will share feedback on using OER. This event is perfect for faculty considering or curious about OER and everyone interested in educational affordability, accessibility, and inclusivity. This ACS-approved event is co-sponsored by the AMP and Falvey Memorial Library.

Register here.

To celebrate Open Access Week, the Affordable Materials Project and Falvey Memorial library co-hosted a public lecture given on Oct. 27 by Michael Pagano, PhD, the Robert J. and Mary Ellen Darretta Endowed Chair in Finance, Villanova School of Business. Dr. Pagano reflected on co-authoring the open access textbook Liquidity, Markets and Trading in Action: An Interdisciplinary Perspectives: “I really would like to see more faculty consider Open Access books for their courses.”

The impetus for the project was the recognition that practical experience with trading and market liquidity were often missing from traditional finance, economics, and information technology courses. Dr. Pagano and his co-authors had individually developed materials covering these topics and had tested them in class over several semesters.  They recognized that making, not only the textbook, but also the simulation software TraderEx and ancillary materials in the form of presentation slides and review and self assessment questions were key to winning faculty adoption.  Affordability considerations are important for both students and faculty, so publishing the materials open access and free to students was the best choice.

According to Dr. Pagano, faculty that rely more on their own notes than published materials, teach a niche or subtopic area not well covered elsewhere, have the time to devote to authorship, and are concerned with the total cost of materials for their students ought to consider open access authoring.

The publication cost for this textbook was generously underwritten by the Robert A. Schwartz Center for Trading and Financial Markets Research. At Villanova, faculty may leverage VITAL Minigrants, the SOAR Fund, and the VSB Teaching Innovation and Development Grant for open access projects.

A recording of the presentation is available to view.

Linda Hauck, MLS, MBA is the Business Librarian at Falvey Memorial Library

By Linda Hauck

Photo by Matthew Guay on Unsplash

The Library is hosting a trial to Factiva, an international news database, by Dow Jones. A wide range of news reporting formats, including newspapers, magazines, wires, podcasts, TV news transcripts, and blogs in multiple languages, are offered. Factiva is a one-stop shop for influential national news sources, such as the Washington Post, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe, and Los Angeles Times. All editions of key international publications, such as Der Spiegel, Le Monde and China Daily, are also available.  Many local papers, trade, and professional publications are included. Most of the content is archival, current and full text. A detailed title list is available. In addition, Factiva includes company and industry snapshots.

Factiva News Search Interface

Customization options abound in the form of Alerts and Newsletters. The News Pages tab conveniently groups top publications by industry and region to facilitate browsing and searching. The Search Builder tab employs boolean operators and filtering for efficiency and ease.

As the name suggests, Global Newsstream also provides coverage of local, national and foreign news publications. The search interface will be familiar to anyone who has used a Proquest database.

We simultaneously have trials to three competing news databases: Factiva, Proquest’s Global Newsstream and Newsbank’s Access World News. Put Factiva and Global Newsstream to test here. Please take a moment to share your feedback on these resources with the library. The trials run through Sept. 30, 2021.

Linda Hauck, MLS,  MBA, is Business Librarian at Falvey Memorial Library.

Jeanne Liedtka, JD, and Valentina DeNardis, PhD, are the Fall 2021 OER Adoption Grant recipients.  This pilot grant, generously funded by the Associate Vice Provost of Teaching and Learning, is designed to encourage faculty to select free, openly licensed textbooks as primary teaching materials.  Open educational resources (OER) improve affordability and support flexible, open teaching practices, and accessibility, which have been exposed at critically important for all students during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Applications for the Spring 2022 OER Adoption Grant are open until October 30, 2021.

Liedtka will teach BL 2185, The Law of Contracts and Sales with Introduction to Contracts, Sales and Product Liability by Mayer, Warner, Siedel & Lieberman supplemented by her lecture notes.  No stranger to teaching with OER, Liedtka had previously transitioned BL 2149, Intellectual Property Law for Business, to using a free, open access textbook.

DeNardis will teach Latin 3001, Reading in Authors using Dickenson College Commentaries, OVID,  Amores Book I, Poetry in Translation as well as scholarly articles. DeNardis, a leader in adopting digital materials, will use this as a model for  Greek and Latin literature classes.

Together these two classes will save students over $10,000 in the first year.

Valentina DeNardis, PhD

Jeanne Liedtka, JD

The Library in partnership with the Villanova School of Business has added the Accounting & Oversight module to our basic Audit Analytics subscription. Audit Analytics structured data facilitate scholarly research on governance, shareholder activism, Sarbanes-Oxley controls, accounting and auditing firms, IPOs, corporate social responsibility, and cybersecurity and more.

All US public companies are included with historical data to 2000. The Accounting and Oversight module is of particular interest because of it’s Accounting Quality Risk Metric, which allows screening by the type, time, and severity of specific risk factors, such as litigation, insider changes, or financial and auditing reporting events.  It also provides cybersecurity disclosure notifications for ransomware, phishing, unauthorized access, and malware with links to original filings or reports.

Access Audit Analytics directly or via WRDS (Wharton Research Data Services), individual password required.

Linda Hauck, MBA, is Business Librarian at Falvey Memorial Library.

We currently have a trial to three new modules of Euromonitor (Passport): Cities, Industrial and Mobility. At its core, Euromonitor provides data and analysis by and for consumer goods and services markets, internationally. Our basic subscription includes country-level profiles on business dynamics, economics, trade, and sustainability, consumer profiles and market research analysis and data for consumer goods and services.

The Cities module provides historical data, forecasts, comparisons, and analysis about the local economy and consumers.  The Industrial module offers historical data and forecasts, but not analysis about economy-wide industrial production, profitability, trade, and attractiveness. Use the Economies tab to access Cities and Industrial.

The Mobility reports present data and analysis on car ownership, sales, alternative fuel vehicles, public transportation, ridesharing, and autonomous vehicles. Use the Industries tab to access Mobility reports.

The trial runs through September 2021.  Please let me know if continued access to any of these modules is compelling.

Linda Hauck, MBA, is Business Librarian at Falvey Memorial Library.