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Textbook Affordability Grants

Supporting CSU faculty in adopting, adapting, and creating low-cost and no-cost textbooks and course materials.

Application Materials

Our Affordability Grants for CSU faculty have saved students over $2 million on textbooks and course materials, changing lives and transforming classes with student‑centered teaching. Links will appear here when the grant cycle is open.

Grant Overview (PDF) Everything you need to know.
Intent to Submit Required before applying; due by November 12, 2025.
2025 Textbook Affordability Grant Application Due by December 3, 2025.
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Stay tuned for the next grant cycle

Details about the next Textbook Affordability Grant round will be posted here when applications open. Please check back for deadlines, application materials, and planning information.

Application materials

Use the materials below during active application periods. This section becomes the most prominent call to action whenever the grant cycle is open.

Grant requirements

  • Complete the project by the end of the following semester, or by an alternative date approved by the grant committee.
  • Use the selected or created material for at least two semesters.
  • Attend a pre-application planning meeting with one or more Textbook Affordability Grant Selection Committee members to discuss the viability of your project.
  • Publicly share any course materials developed through this grant under a Creative Commons license.
  • Use only grantee-authored, Creative Commons licensed (derivatives authorized), or public domain works in your open educational resource, if applicable.
  • If creating an original work, provide a list of potential peer reviewers to review the final product.
  • Evaluate the impact on student learning at the end of the course.
  • Provide a report to the sponsors at the end of the project.
  • Share your experience through appropriate events or information channels such as the Provost’s Teaching Summit.

Application criteria

  • Total dollars saved, based on the cost of current course materials multiplied by enrollment.
  • An articulated plan to assess the impact and quality of student learning.
  • Feasibility for adoption in other sections.
  • Sustainability over time.
  • Priority for projects supporting general education courses with significant enrollment.
  • Projects that have already received support via a Textbook Affordability Grant are not eligible to receive another grant.
  • Visiting professors and graduate students are not eligible to receive a Textbook Affordability Grant.

Project description

Revise, remix, or adapt an existing open textbook or other open educational resource and/or create new open content to bridge gaps in available resources.

New content may add chapters to existing open textbooks or be used to create ancillaries such as quiz question banks, lecture slides, or lab manuals.

Goal: replace a traditional, high-cost textbook with an open textbook, articles, book excerpts, audio, or video that are openly licensed or in the public domain.

Grant amount: $1,000; half up front and the remainder upon completion of the project.

Support for grantees

Appropriate support to find, adopt, or adapt an existing open educational textbook or other educational resources to replace a traditional, high-cost textbook is provided through collaboration among the Michael Schwartz Library, the Center for eLearning, the Center for Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, and the Center for Faculty Excellence.

Low-cost or no-cost Projects are designed to replace expensive traditional materials with more affordable options.
Student-centered The grant supports teaching approaches that improve access while keeping student learning at the center.
Built to last Recipients commit to using the selected or created materials for at least two semesters.

Sponsorship and selection committee

This grant is offered by the Michael Schwartz Library in collaboration with the Center for eLearning, the Center for Instructional Technology and Distance Learning (CITDL), and the Center for Faculty Excellence.

  • Joanne Goodell, Director, Center for Faculty Excellence
  • Mandi Goodsett, Performing Arts & Humanities Librarian, OER & Copyright Advisor, Michael Schwartz Library
  • Caryn Lanzo, Director, Center for eLearning
  • Barb Loomis, Digital Scholarship Publications & Programs Coordinator, Michael Schwartz Library

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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