McCausland College of Arts and Sciences faculty members Christina Deka and Chris Portwood are the 2026 recipients of University Libraries’ SCoer Awards.

Given annually by the Libraries, the SCoer Awards recognize and support faculty who are seeking to replace traditional textbooks with open educational resources (OER) in their classrooms. These resources – high quality, openly licensed teaching, learning and research materials available at low or no cost to students – benefit students and faculty alike. In addition to saving students hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year in textbook costs, they allow faculty to customize course materials to fit their teaching needs more precisely than traditional textbooks typically can.

To date, USC faculty who have worked with the Libraries to adopt affordable learning materials have saved students more than $5 million in textbook costs.

Deka, an instructor in the Department of English, will use the award to adopt OER in Speech 140: Public Communication, while Portwood, an instructor in the Mathematics Department, will do the same for Math 122: Calculus for Business Administration and Social Sciences. They will receive both mentoring and financial support from the Libraries to facilitate the transition.

SCoer Award recipients are selected by USC Student Government representatives and University Libraries staff.

"It is an honor every year that Student Government is looped into picking the SCoer Award winners,” said Student Government Association President Myron Harris. “Being able to see faculty members go above and beyond for their students so that course materials and access are available to all is amazing, and we value initiatives that show collaboration between faculty and students that is centered around helping those students be successful in those classrooms."

"The University Libraries strive to remove barriers to affordable and accessible education for our community,” said Research and Instruction Librarian Kala Dunn, the SCoer Award Coordinator. “The SCoer Awards are an opportunity to support our faculty as they work to accomplish this joint goal and to show we are partners in this endeavor."