Dr. Stacey Mumbower is an Assistant Professor of Management and Technology in the College of Business at the Worldwide Campus. Dr. Mumbower’s research leverages online data to better understand airline pricing and product strategies, and how these strategies impact customers, as well as the industry in general. Her research has been published in Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Journal of Air Transport Management, Transportation Research Record, and Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives.

Our library has so many free resources that can be incorporated into classrooms, and the librarians are always helpful in identifying resources too. Professors can replace traditional textbook readings with e-books, journal and news articles, and LinkedIn Learning resources. When planning a class, it does take more time up front to identify a variety of resources that you can incorporate into your course, but the extra time is worth it in the end.

For the classes listed above, I started using affordable textbooks options when I redeveloped them in 2021. However, I've also used affordable textbooks previously when I worked at another university (starting around 2015).

Using resources that are freely available through the library is a great way to make sure that each student has access to all learning materials. If I use a paid textbook, I know that some students may choose not to purchase it. I want all of my students to have access to the learning materials that are required for the class. I also don’t want any of my students to ever feel like they can’t afford to buy the required resources for a class. For me, the cost savings for students is all the motivation that I need to incorporate free materials into the course.

I adopted affordable textbook options for two main reasons, cost and flexibility. I do worry about the cost of education for students. Using free resources is something that I can do to reduce costs in my classes. I also appreciate the extra flexibility that I have in teaching the course. By incorporating a variety of free resources (such as e-books, articles, and LinkedIn Learning resources), I don’t have to follow along with chapters in a textbook and can cover the topics in any order that I think works best for student learning. I often create my own videos to show students how to analyze data, which also provides a lot of flexibility. I can customize the content and use datasets that I know will grab the attention of my students.