[FUN_Mail] FUN Final Friday - Oct 27 - Open Access Textbook

[Amy Jo Stavnezer]

Hello FUN friends,

Would you like to find more cost-effective (or free!) textbooks for your students?

Join us on October 27th, at 4 pm<https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMudOytrD0jGNd3s6lAccL7-DiUjGEy-WOY> (ET) when Dr. Liz Kirby tells us about Developing an open access textbook resource for behavioral neuroscience: Introduction to Behavioral Neuroscience 1e.

Textbooks support and guide learning in numerous college-level science courses. Though faculty typically create the content of science textbooks, the books are primarily produced and sold by for-profit publishers. The high costs of commercial textbooks are gaining increased attention as a major barrier to academic success and equity. The emergence of open educational resources offers a way to reduce financial barriers to academic success by providing educational materials free of charge, to anyone who wishes to learn from them. In this talk, I will discuss the ongoing creation of an open-access, online textbook to accompany a typical Introduction to Behavioral Neuroscience course for entry-level college students. The primary goal of this project is to create a viable replacement for costly textbooks in a foundational course in neuroscience. A secondary goal is to prioritize increasing representation of diversity in neuroscience educational materials, including in the authors who contribute chapters and in the images of humans accompanying the text. I will discuss our community-based model of textbook creation, funding, publishing/production and plans for launch in 2024. Access to faculty-created (and faculty-assigned) scientific knowledge should not require surmounting a pay-wall. It is our expectation that easier access to better neuroscience resources, like the one I will describe, will contribute to lowering the costs for students who are pursuing education in neuroscience, as well as greater student enthusiasm for neuroscience.

Registration Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMudOytrD0jGNd3s6lAccL7-DiUjGEy-WOY

In case you missed them, you can find the recordings from our previous FFF sessions by going to the FUN Final Friday page<https://www.funfaculty.org/funfriday> and then using the link at the bottom of the page to previous sessions (link: https://www.funfaculty.org/funfriday).  You will be prompted to log into your FUN account, as the recordings are only available to active members.
In August we discussed Storytelling in STEM classes and in September Recognizing and Preventing Burnout.

Looking forward to seeing you at the October session!
Amy Jo, Shannon, Barbara, and David


Amy Jo Stavnezer
Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology<https://amyjostavnezer.voices.wooster.edu/>
College of Wooster
Member, Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience<https://www.funfaculty.org/>
Editorial Board, Journal for Undergraduate Neuroscience Education <http://www.funjournal.org/>

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