Textbook Affordability Video Contest

Textbook Affordability Week Video Contest

  Faculty: Using low or no-cost textbooks in your classes?

  Students: Frustrated by the rising cost of textbooks? Looking for alternatives to buying the book?

 Tell your story and win a $100 gift card!

Think about the ways you as a student or faculty member use low and no-cost course materials. 

Faculty: Maybe you use them as the main text, or to supplement a traditional textbook.  Maybe they've helped you customize your course or go beyond what's covered in the text.

Students: Maybe you’ve searched them out on your own to help prepare for a standardized test or to help understand material  when the textbook just isn’t cutting it.  Maybe your prof teaches a zero-cost textbook course and you're able to do other things with your money than buy a book. 

Think about it, and then… make a video!

Who: Open to all currently enrolled Commonwealth University students (graduate and undergraduate) and classroom faculty. Student and faculty videos will be judged separately. 

What: Make a video (no more than 3 minutes) about how using low and no-cost textbooks and other course material has impacted your teaching and/or learning.

When: Deadline is 11:59 PM ET on Sunday, March 5, 2023.  

To enter:  Use this form.

Prizes:  Prizes will be awarded based on the campus of the winner.

• 1^st place in both categories: $100 University Store gift card if the winner is from BU/$100 Visa gift if the winner is from LHU or MU
• 2^nd place in both categories: Plush throw/blanket featuring the mascot from your home campus
• 3^rd place in both categories: Hoodie featuring the mascot from your home campus (choice of size/color)

Many thanks to the CGA/University Store for donating the prizes for BU winners.

Winning submissions will be shared on Commonwealth University Libraries websites and social media channels and will be shared with CU marketing.

Questions? Katie Yelinek, Andruss Library, kyelinek@bloomu.edu

Rules:

• Open to all currently enrolled Commonwealth University students (graduate and undergraduate) and classroom faculty. Student and faculty videos will be judged separately. Past winners are ineligible for two years. 
• Deadline for entry is 11:59 PM ET on Sunday, March 5, 2023. No exceptions. 
• Videos over 3 minutes will be disqualified.
• Videos that have not had a CC license applied will be disqualified.
• Only one submission per student or faculty member, but students may work in groups of up to 3.  Prizes will be shared if a group is declared the winner.
• What counts as low or no-cost course material?  Inclusive Access/First-Day Access (e-versions of commercially available textbooks available through BOLT/D2L and direct billed to students at the lowest possible cost), open educational resources (course material that is freely available to download, share, and edit, available through sites such as OpenStax.org and the Open Textbook Library), library sources (articles, ebooks, and videos available through a Commonwealth University Library), and other freely available material online (YouTube videos, government websites and resources, etc.). 
• Video must be original content.
• Videos may be created using any video software or device, but be sure to watch your file size! The limit is 100MB. Cell phone videos are often larger. If you would like to use Zoom to record your video as a smaller file size, here are directions: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362473-Local-recording. Or, here are directions to compress larger file size videos: https://invideo.io/blog/how-to-compress-a-video/

• Submit videos through the entry form above using your university email address
  • On the entry form, you must indicate what Creative Commons license you are applying to your video.  A Creative Commons license is a license that means you retain the copyright to your video, but you are indicating what others may freely do with it without having to ask your permission.  Creative Commons licenses are one of the keys that makes open educational resources possible.  To choose your license, visit this page: https://chooser-beta.creativecommons.org/. 

Judging:

• Judging will be done by a team comprised of a representative from each campus.
• No prior video creation or editing experience necessary.
• Winners will be selected by Friday, March 10, 2023 and notified shortly thereafter.
• The decision of the judges is final.  Judges may choose not to award a prize if they feel no entry meets basic requirements. 
• General criteria: storytelling, creativity, effectively communicates impact/importance of low and no-cost textbooks and other course material to the educational life of the campus

Thanks to those who entered!  After reviewing the entries, the judges awarded a 1st prize winner in both the faculty category and the student category.  Congratulations to Dr. Richard Paulsen, 1st place faculty winner, and Chase Bilodeau, 1st place student winner!

Faculty 

Textbook Affordability - Paulsen by Richard Paulsen is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Student

BU Textbook Affordability by Chase Bilodeau is marked with CC0 1.0 Universal. 

Thanks to those who entered!  We had two entries in the faculty category.  Congratulations to Dr. Dennis Frohlich, 1st place winner, and Dr. Christina Francis, 2nd place winner!

1st place

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Dennis Frohlich

2nd place

Textbook video by Christina Francis is marked with CC0 1.0.