15 Introduction

As the cost of higher education continues to rise, colleges and universities across the country are exploring a variety of approaches to address this challenge. From participation in consortiums like Unizin (of which Indiana University and the four universities featured here are members) to campus-specific initiatives (e.g., eText programs with publisher partners, faculty-produced open educational textbooks), these efforts are resulting in lower-cost textbook options for students. Importantly, another outcome of seeking to lower the cost of course materials is increased faculty engagement, fueled by the availability grants to support development of open textbooks and for course design and development. Addressing the challenge of rising costs to students has also led to new and innovative collaborations with campus libraries.

This section describes the efforts of four other institutions, and how they are implementing the aforementioned and other approaches to reducing the cost of higher education.