{"id":144155,"date":"2026-02-05T01:27:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T01:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/144155\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T01:27:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T01:27:11","slug":"aim-impact-awards-honor-professors-generating-cost-savings-for-students-academics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/144155\/","title":{"rendered":"AIM Impact Awards honor professors generating cost savings for students | Academics"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AIM<\/p>\n

Faculty in the College of Arts and Humanities’\u00a0First-Year Composition Program accepts the Group Legacy Impact Award from the AIM Initiative at the Live Oak Center at UCF on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Jalen Campbell<\/p>\n

Faculty applause filled the Live Oak Center at UCF on Tuesday when Affordable Instructional Materials Impact awardees were recognized for their efforts in making course materials affordable and accessible for students.<\/p>\n

AIM Initiative held its seventh annual AIM High event<\/a>\u00a0to present the Rising Impact Award, Individual Legacy Impact Award, Group Legacy Impact Award and the Knights\u2019 Choice Award.<\/p>\n

The AIM High program is meant to generate cost savings for students by prioritizing affordable course materials, including Open Educational Resources and library-sourced materials<\/a>,\u00a0according to UCF Digital Learning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Thomas Cavanagh, vice provost\u00a0for digital learning at UCF, said the program has helped students save over $50 million since 2019. In 2025, 18,878 course sections used low or no-cost course materials, which made up 76.5% of all sections offered last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make sure students are able to get the best education possible,\u201d Cavanagh said. \u201cThey can\u2019t do that if they can\u2019t afford the books or other materials.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Debaleena Majumdar, professor at the UCF School of Interdisciplinary Studies, was awarded the Rising Impact Award for making efforts to provide affordable instructional materials within the last two years.\u00a0Majumdar eliminated all course material costs for her “Introduction to Sustainable Development” course.<\/p>\n

Majumdar organized 14 textbook chapters, 14 videos, 12 web-based resources and six articles and provided them to her students at no cost. Her course earned the Affordability Counts<\/a> Medallion and was recognized as a quality online course within the state university system of Florida.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy first challenge is, how do I introduce such complex topics to my students?\u201d Majumdar said.\u00a0\u201cThere are numerous great resources out there, and those resources are available at UCF Library.\u201d<\/p>\n

Majumdar shared with faculty the importance of collaboration when it comes to implementing these resources and materials into their courses.<\/p>\n

Dr. Samar Younes, professor of engineering, was presented the Individual Legacy Impact Award for the use of open educational resources \u2014\u00a0including UCF library resources, first-day materials and instructor-created content \u2014\u00a0across civil, environmental and construction engineering courses. This award honors long-term efforts and a commitment to providing affordable instructional materials.<\/p>\n

Younes\u2019 work impacted 1,776 students and saved them approximately $371,000 in cost savings, according to data presented at the ceremony. She created her own free YouTube instructional channel offering step-by-step problem-solving to make these savings possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to implement all my own notes for the students to make a better learning experience,\u201d Younes said.<\/p>\n

Younes highlighted the significance of starting out small when redesigning a course to provide affordable and accessible materials for students. She said that it takes time to add these resources, and faculty should take their time making these efforts.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0College of Arts and Humanities’<\/a>\u00a0first-year composition program\u00a0was\u00a0honored with the Group Legacy Impact Award for its\u00a0sustained impact through the use of open educational resources and UCF Library materials in its ENC 1101 and ENC 1102 classes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Faculty replaced traditional textbooks with resources available at no cost to students and made them accessible through Canvas. Enrollment range for the two classes is approximately 2,700 to 3,100 students per semester, which chalks up consistent term savings between $404,000 and $460,000, as stated in the meeting.<\/p>\n

Shivani Vakharia, Student Government director of academic progress, presented the Knights\u2019 Choice Award to Joseph Wachowski, who was unable to attend the event. Wachowski, professor at the Nicholson School of Communication and Media, was selected for his dedication to creating and supporting affordable and accessible materials by collaborating with faculty and the UCF Library.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving these opportunities where professors go out of their way to give me that affordability is wonderful and should be reserved for every single student here,\u201d Vakharia said.<\/p>\n

The event was capped off with tabling, where the awardees could display some of their cost-saving resources and where faculty could mingle and network.<\/p>\n

Joel Cramer, interim vice provost for faculty excellence, emphasized the dedication of educators who prioritize student success.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of us here got into this for the salary,\u201d Cramer said. \u201cWe got into this because we care about our students and we want to nurture them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Faculty in the College of Arts and Humanities’\u00a0First-Year Composition Program accepts the Group Legacy Impact Award from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[4401,115,139,141,140],"class_list":{"0":"post-144155","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-academics","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-orlando","11":"tag-orlando-headlines","12":"tag-orlando-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}