PCAS Textbook Subcommittee Meeting Agenda

PCAS Textbook Subcommittee Thursday, January 22, 2015

Meeting Agenda 1. Discuss the CSU site and decide whether something like it is an option that we want to investigate/define further. 2. Take stock of all of the options that we’ve discussed thus far. 3. Plan how we’ll spend the rest of the spring completing research into options and developing a set of recommendations for the Provost.

Attendees

 Stephen Burd

 Glenna Doctor

 Jonathan Wheeler

 Sonia Rankin

 Moira Gerety

 Diane Marshall

Minutes A summary of discussions and decisions follows.

CSU Site Discussion

 Diane Likes the CSU website

 Steve was disappointed by the out of date materials and password protected materials

 Cost to students was $40 (Discovered by Diane regarding biology materials)

 Looking at the CSU site brought out 3 improvements that need made:

o Content needs to be current

o Search capability needs improvement

o 11 tabs is overwhelming

1/22/2015 Draft Minutes PCAS Textbook Subcommittee Page 1 of 3  Jon likes the amount of resources

 Steve suggests using this as a template and customizing it to UNM, What would the cost be?

 Should the UNM Bookstore or the library host a site similar to the CSU site?

 There needs to be support staff behind a site like the CSU site

 It would be helpful to talk to the people running the CSU website to see what kind of resources are being used.

 Something like this is needed, it is an example.

 Do we build our own? Talk to CSU to see what their next version will look like?

Stock of Options

 See document “Options and Issues” on website under “Project Documents”

 Sonia asks: we need to make notes about misuse course textbooks

 Diane: It’s important to not order books you’re not going to use and faculty need to be aware of options.

 Interest of topics by students needs to be considered

 We need more information about what the student needs are

 We don’t want to take away the ability to choose their materials

 Do students think about book longevity like we do?

 Moira: The student survey is being put together and should include textbooks/ course materials

o Steve thinks we need a whole survey for textbooks/ course materials

o We could put out a survey to randomly selected students regarding textbooks/ course materials that could be detailed

o We also need to survey faculty

 Sonia asked: Do we want to do something big or something more nuanced?

 Diane: We don’t want all faculty to invent their own materials but to make it easier for faculty to use cheaper materials

 Sonia likes the idea of options (buy new, buy used, rental)

 We could better advertise how the bookstore has changed

1/22/2015 Draft Minutes PCAS Textbook Subcommittee Page 2 of 3  Rental availability should be available to faculty when they’re choosing their textbooks

 Instead of doing something boldish we will focus on having faculty do the same as Biology (same textbook is used for 4 semesters and it doesn’t change regardless of newer editions until that group that started with the book finishes the 4 semesters)

 Change promotion and tenure policy to include faculty to develop their own course materials (this is a bold option)

 Assembling a la carte materials is time consuming and difficult (the CSU system could in theory support this)

 How often is it reasonable to change course materials?

How We’ll Spend This Semester See “Spring Work Plan” under “Project Documents” on the website

1/22/2015 Draft Minutes PCAS Textbook Subcommittee Page 3 of 3