Brookdale Gets $900K To Create Digital Content As Alternative To Textbooks

LINCROFT, NJ-- Brookdale Community College has been awarded a $899,899 grant from the National Science Foundation. Faculty, students and staff will use the grant to create interactive, online learning materials to provide alternatives to traditional textbooks for educators across the country.

Students, including graphic design, computer science, physics, chemistry students, will pair with faculty to design online-based learning materials for "particularly difficult concepts," the press release said. More than 300 educators nationwide will benefit from this program.

The grant is designed to combat the high cost of traditional paper textbooks by acting as an alternative to costly supplemental materials, and will run through August 2019.

"In my 20 years of teaching, I’ve seen the rapid evolution of students, spiking textbook prices and significant changes in college course materials," engineering and technology professor Michael Qaissaunee, who will lead the program, said in a statement.

Brookdale has previously hosted a similar program. Between 2012 and 2015, students and faculty created two new e-textbooks, and created a blueprint for other educators to build their own.

Image caption: "Brookdale Community College faculty, staff and students will create new interactive learning materials for educators across the country as part of a $900,000 National Science Foundation grant program beginning this year." Photo by Brookdale Community College.