Skip to main content

Dr. Kurt Sandholtz: Affordability Champion

He didn't like the textbooks that his students were paying for. He created his own and made it free online.

Dr. Kurt Sandholtz, was receiving feedback from his students in his Communication in Organizational Settings (MCOM 320) course. They were saying that the textbook was not very useful or applicable to the things that they were being tested on. Some of the information was outdated and was difficult to read. After hearing about a BYU Library grant that would help him create his own textbook, he submitted his proposal and was eventually awarded the grant. After spending the summer working with other Marriott School faculty members and others, Dr. Sandholtz published the textbook online at mcom320.net. The first semester with the new textbook, he had 1/2 of his sections use the old textbook, and the other 1/2 use the new online textbook. He found that the students that were assigned the new textbook read more, and reported that the online text was very easy to use.