Announcement congratulating grant recipients for Open and Affordable Teaching Materials (OEWeek), showing OEWeek logo and teal/violet icons—laptop, microphone, headphones, camera, calendar, cloud—on a dark purple background.
Library, Museums and Press Staff
August 25, 2026

Making Learning More Affordable: The 2026 Open and Affordable Teaching Materials Grant Recipients

 

The University of Delaware Library, Museums and Press is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2026 Open and Affordable Teaching Materials grants. Made possible in part through support from the Unidel Foundation and Library, Museums and Press donors, the program has helped UD students save more than $700,000 in textbook costs to date.

The grants support faculty developing open educational resources (OER) or transitioning courses to more affordable materials, helping reduce costs while expanding access to high-quality learning resources.

Five faculty members received authoring grants:

  • Aditya Dutta, assistant professor of reproductive biology in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences
  • Stephanie Smith Budhai, associate professor in the School of Education
  • Catherine Heilferty, associate professor in the College of Health Sciences’ School of Nursing
  • Archana Mannem, assistant professor of marketing in the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics
  • Marshall Green, assistant professor of Africana Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences

Transition grants were awarded to:

  • Kate Riera, assistant professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences
  • Jane Case, assistant professor in the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration, and Kristie LeBeau, visiting assistant professor in the same school
  • Michael Hast, associate professor, and Xin Lu, professor, both in the Department of Mechanical Engineering
  • Alex De Rosa, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering
  • Monica Dominguez Torres, associate professor of art history

A key resource supporting the authoring grants is Pressbooks, a publishing platform available to UD faculty through the Library, Museums and Press that provides the tools to create, edit and publish open textbooks and other educational resources at no cost to students. Aditya Dutta, a returning grant recipient who received an authoring grant in 2024, has worked with the Library, Museums and Press to develop Veterinary Biochemistry, the newest addition to the University of Delaware Pressbooks catalog. The comprehensive textbook provides foundational knowledge relevant to veterinary medicine and biochemistry students.

Faculty interested in creating their own open resources can sign up for a University of Delaware Pressbooks account and begin developing and publishing OER.