Free textbook initiative experiencing major growth with faculty support to benefit students

Atlanta — February 15, 2018

The University System of Georgia (USG) is saving students more than $18 million a year with its free online textbook initiative called Affordable Learning Georgia.

More than 219,300 students from across the system have benefited directly from the free textbook program. To date, Affordable Learning Georgia has saved students more than $31 million on textbook costs, and the initiative is expected to grow in coming years as highlighted in the USG’s presentation to the Georgia House of Representatives Higher Education Subcommittee of Appropriations on Feb. 14.

The success of Affordable Learning Georgia is due to USG faculty and administrators working together to:

• Make use of USG grants to provide free textbooks, which are formally called Open Education Resources (OER) and often referred to as “eTextbooks.”
• Redesign courses to take advantage of free and low-cost materials in place of costly textbooks.
• Use OER in all USG eCore online courses and continue to expand the use of free eTextbooks in the classroom.

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