OAT Award Recipients for Spring 2025

Jesse Bayker, Assistant Teaching Professor, Camden College of Arts and Sciences, Department of History

Dr. Bayker will adopt The American Yawp, a high-quality open textbook developed by a group of scholars in partnership with Stanford University Press, to teach Development of the U.S. I. This resource aligns perfectly with the two-part course and is available in multiple electronic and print formats, eliminating the need for costly textbooks. He will also incorporate The American Yawp Reader, a curated selection of public domain primary sources, ensuring students engage directly with historical documents. Supplementary materials will include resources from Rutgers University Libraries databases and Alexander Street videos through the Libraries’ subscription, all available at no cost to students. Additionally, he will integrate open educational resources such as Teaching American History and Women and the American Story, which offer contextualized primary sources and inquiry-based learning tools suitable for introductory college courses.

Taught: Fall 2025, Spring 2026

100 students impacted per year | Projected savings per year: $15,625

Lauren Daniel, Associate Professor, Camden College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Psychology

For Graduate Health Psychology, Dr. Daniel will adopt a text available through Rutgers University Libraries, supplemented by weekly journal articles presented by the students. Additionally, she will incorporate assignments using a publicly available data set. To provide background on each topic area covered in the syllabus, she will assign readings from a curated list of book chapters available through the Libraries. These book chapters will be supplemented by articles that illustrate an intervention implementation in different medical populations studied. To support students coming from three graduate programs, the library’s tutorials on searching medical literature will be embedded into the course content.

Taught: Fall 2025

35 students impacted per year | Projected savings per year: $7,000

Nathan Fong, Director of MS in Business Analytics and Associate Professor, Marketing, School of Business–Camden

Dr. Fong will refresh his Social Media Marketing course by integrating open educational materials to enhance affordability and allow for greater customization. He will curate materials covering topics such as marketing strategy, digital platforms, social influence, and AI tools. Resources will include freely available content, Rutgers-subscribed services, and scholarly articles accessed through Rutgers University Libraries subscriptions. The online course will provide all materials electronically and will be organized through Canvas and a custom webpage that will function as a virtual textbook. This flexible approach allows for regular updates to keep content current, especially in quickly evolving areas, while maintaining stable core sections. 

Taught: Fall 2025, Spring 2026

80 students impacted per year | Projected savings per year: $6,400

Sangita Pudasainee-Kapri, Assistant Professor, School of Nursing–Camden

Dr. Pudasainee-Kapri will design a new course, Social Determinants of Health Impacting Children Across U.S. & Global Communities, with a focus on diversifying learning resources by incorporating a range of online and open access materials. She will include evidence-based content and data sources at the local, state, national, and international levels to broaden the scope and inclusivity of the course materials. Collaborating with a Rutgers–Camden librarian, she will explore and incorporate additional evidence-based open educational resources available through the Rutgers University Libraries collection to ensure the continued sustainability and cost-effectiveness of course materials. Two key textbooks are currently available to students at no cost through the Libraries.

Taught: Fall 2025, Spring 2026

90 students impacted per year | Projected savings per year: $12,521

Anabelle Rodriguez, Lecturer, Camden College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Visual, Media, and Performing Arts

Professor Rodriguez will incorporate a variety of open educational resources and library materials into her Art Appreciation course, including videos, books, book chapters, and scholarly and trade journal articles available through Rutgers University Libraries subscriptions. She will supplement these with openly accessible videos and student guides. Incorporating these materials will allow the course to become more inclusive in terms of content that is global in breadth and interdisciplinary in scope. 

Taught: Summer 2025, Winter 2026, Spring 2026, Summer 2026

100 students impacted per year | Projected savings per year: $4,500

James Rushing, Associate Professor, Camden College of Arts and Sciences, Department of World Languages and Cultures

Dr. Rushing will embed custom German language grammar materials in his Canvas course for Intermediate German I and II. The conversation component will be supported through interactive technologies like Zoom and VoiceThread, enabling flexible one-on-one or small group exchanges in an online format. For the culture component, students will engage with a diverse range of open access texts and videos, including public domain literature such as Grimm’s fairy tales and contemporary news sources. Additional library materials will be made directly available through the Canvas course. Video content will be sourced from freely available resources, such as German public broadcasters and the Libraries’ Kanopy subscription.

Taught: Fall 2025, Spring 2026

20 students impacted per year | Projected savings per year: $6,360

Surya Teja Gavva, Assistant Teaching Professor, School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Computer Science

For Introduction to Discrete Structures I, Dr. Gavva will replace a costly traditional textbook with a highly regarded open textbook that is widely used in computer science education. This open textbook thoroughly covers core topics such as logic, proof techniques, number theory, graph theory, and recurrence relations. To address areas not included in the open textbook, like Boolean algebra and automata theory, he will develop custom lecture notes that integrate seamlessly with the primary text and include clear examples and practice problems. He will also reference another open textbook that offers student-friendly explanations and examples to reinforce learning.

Taught: Fall 2025, Spring 2025

960 students impacted per year | Projected savings per year: $144,000

Calvin Lai, Associate Professor, School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Psychology

Dr. Lai will incorporate an open textbook from the social psychology academic nonprofit Noba Project for his Social Psychology course. He will also incorporate readings from open educational resources and Rutgers University Libraries collections to cover topics that are not covered in the Noba textbook. The Noba textbook seeks to be inclusive in how it covers topics in social psychology and replaces a costly traditional textbook. 

Taught: Fall 2025

270 students impacted per year | Projected savings per year: $45,225

Roie Levin, Assistant Professor, School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Computer Science

Dr. Levin will adopt a free online textbook in place of a costly traditional textbook to teach Design and Analysis of Computer Algorithms. He will also publish lecture notes on the course website, adapting materials from similar courses taught at U.S. universities. The course materials are designed to be shared with future instructors of the course, providing downstream benefits to Rutgers students.

Taught: Summer 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026, Summer 2026

1,000 students impacted per year | Projected savings per year: $100,000

Peng Liu, Assistant Teaching Professor, School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures

Dr. Liu will redesign Classical Chinese Popular Fiction & Drama in Translation to prioritize equitable access by replacing a traditional text with another foundational Chinese literary work that is available online through Rutgers University Libraries. He will collaborate with the Libraries to ensure seamless access to the text and identify additional open resources that enrich the course. To deepen engagement, students will use digital tools such as data analysis and keyword searches to explore themes, characters, and historical context in interactive ways. By integrating technology and open access materials, the course becomes more adaptable and student-centered.

Taught: Fall 2025

25 students impacted per year | Projected savings per year: $3,125

Jinjing (Jenny) Wang, Assistant Professor, School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Psychology

For Infant and Child Development, Dr. Wang will combine open access materials, library resources, and original content. A key resource will be an open textbook developed by Stanford University researchers that offers a strong foundation in infant and child development. She will incorporate additional materials including scholarly journal articles, news stories, and multimedia content, such as videos and web-based demonstrations like the Panamath game. She will also use materials from the Rutgers University Libraries collection including book chapters and academic texts.

Taught: Spring 2026

150 students impacted per year | Projected savings per year: $11,850

Laura Lomas, Professor, School of Arts and Sciences–Newark, Department of English

Dr. Lomas will redesign her Reading Latinx Literature course using open and affordable materials that reflect the diverse voices and multimedia forms of Latinx cultural expression. She will incorporate digital tools and formats such as audiobooks and online archives. Core texts will include materials from the Rutgers University Libraries collection, including books, music, scholarly articles, and audiovisual materials. This innovative approach not only reduces costs but also expands students’ engagement with Latinx literature across time, media, and cultural contexts. 

Taught: Summer 2025, Fall 2025, Winter 2026, Spring 2026, Summer 2026

188 students impacted per year | Projected savings per year: $18,048

Michael Carniol, Assistant Professor, Rutgers Business School–Newark and New Brunswick, Department of Accounting and Information Systems

Dr. Carniol will replace an expensive textbook for Introduction to Financial Accounting with an open textbook available from OpenStax. Adopting this open resource also makes reading and homework assignments more customizable and interactive. He will use Stukent simulation software for graded homework assignments, replacing a costly commercial product. He will also use practice problems from OpenStax as supplementary exercises to be completed in and out of class. 

Taught: Spring 2026

140 students impacted per year | Projected savings per year: $11,900

Bhagavathi Ramamurthy, Assistant Professor, School of Health Professions, Department of Physician Assistant Studies

For Medical Physiology and Pathology, Dr. Ramamurthy will use textbooks, case studies, laboratory exercises, and simulations at no cost to students. The textbooks are made available to students through a Rutgers University Libraries subscription. Additional open textbook resources are available through OpenStax. Case studies will be available directly on the Canvas course site. A laboratory manual tailored to the course, laboratory equipment, and commonly available materials will be available at no cost to students in the class. A simulation laboratory exercise that Dr. Ramamurthy created through a Dean’s Teaching Innovation grant will be incorporated into the course. She will incorporate the Kahoot app, one of Rutgers’ Canvas apps, to add gamification to enhance short-term memory recall and review of topics.

Taught: Spring 2026

50 students impacted per year | Projected savings per year:  $9,100

Amml Hussein, Associate Teaching Professor, Rutgers–New Brunswick, School of Social Work

Dr. Hussein will develop an open-source textbook to accompany the Applied Statistics course. The textbook will be designed specifically for students engaged in social justice, public health, and community-based research, equipping students with practical statistical skills to address pressing community challenges. Through the framework of the Kellogg Foundation's Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) framework, students will engage with statistical methods to uncover disparities, advocate for policy changes, and foster social transformation. This textbook will remain current with evolving statistical methods and social justice applications, incorporating feedback from educators and students.

William Kernan, Professor, Rutgers Health, School of Nursing, Division of Advanced Nursing Practice

Barbara Niedz, Assistant Professor, Rutgers Health, School of Nursing, Division of Advanced Nursing Practice

Dr. Kernan and Dr. Niedz will develop an open access textbook specifically for advanced practice nurses (APNs) that teaches measurement, epidemiology, and biostatistics principles using case studies from the nursing literature and author-generated problem sets. It will address the challenges faced by APNs in clinical practice, research, and policymaking. It meets the relevant data and measurement competencies required by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) program accreditation standards that were developed by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). The textbook will also highlight diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) concepts as central themes necessary to achieve health equity.

Jesse Liss, Assistant Teaching Professor, Rutgers–Newark, School of Arts and Sciences–Newark, Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Dr. Liss will create a Data Science and Addiction Research textbook that will equip undergraduates with integrated, interdisciplinary training in addiction research, spanning behavioral genetics, neuroscience, environmental and social determinants, public policy, and statistical methods. As part of a broader NIH-supported training initiative, this textbook will be hosted on a permanent web repository maintained by the Rutgers Addiction Research Center. The textbook will support two sequential research methods courses offered in person at both Rutgers–Newark and Rutgers–New Brunswick, and online across all Rutgers divisions, including Rutgers–Camden and Rutgers Health. Accessibility will be a core principle of the textbook, which will be designed following best practices in Universal Design for Learning and accessibility standards.

Natalia Noce, Assistant Professor, Rutgers Health, School of Health Professions, Department of Rehabilitation and Movement Sciences

Professor Noce will develop a comprehensive yet easily understandable manual that will democratize the learning process of upper extremity orthotic fabrication. Acknowledging that true mastery in orthotic fabrication is cultivated through consistent practice and repetition, this manual is intentionally structured to facilitate experiential learning. It offers meticulously detailed, step-by-step instructions for a variety of common upper extremity orthoses, directly accompanied by high-quality visual reference images to ensure accurate understanding of each stage. Recognizing the diverse learning preferences of individuals, the manual will refer to instructional videos, readily accessible through the Panopto platform, allowing learners to visually follow along with the fabrication process at their own pace. 

Victoria Ramenzoni, Assistant Professor, Rutgers–New Brunswick, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Department of Human Ecology

Jack Harris, Assistant Teaching Professor, Rutgers–New Brunswick, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Department of Human Ecology

Rachael Shwom, Professor, Rutgers–New Brunswick, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Human Ecology

Cara Cuite, Associate Extension Specialist, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Department of Human Ecology

The four collaborators will create an open access textbook that is designed to outline the core elements for the course Introduction to Environmental Policy, Institutions, and Behavior. Following a brief characterization of the field of human ecology and a glossary of key definitions and terms that will be referenced in each chapter, the textbook will present a diverse range of theories on the relationships between humans and their environment and how critical moments in our nation's history have shaped how we deal with environmental issues today. It will include 10 subjects with case studies portraying pressing problems. The textbook will be designed to prepare students to be environmental social scientists working on key sustainability issues.