Each year, UNO Criss Library recognizes individuals within the university community who have made significant contributions to promoting and adopting affordable content. In particular we highlight individuals who have partnered with Criss Library’s Open Educational Resources program and Affordable Content Grants program. This year’s Textbook Mavericks Honoree is the Faculty of the Grace Abbott School of Social Work.
This recognition reflects a sustained commitment to affordable content at UNO and a major new milestone for the university: the development of an online Bachelor of Science in Social Work pathway in which every redesigned course will move to no-cost or low-cost course materials. Built through a collaboration among the Grace Abbott School of Social Work, UNO Criss Library, and the Division of Innovative and Learning-Centric Initiatives, the project will create UNO’s second fully Open Nebraska (ONE) major and the first in a practice-focused discipline.
Susan Reay, EdD, LICSW, is the Director and John E. Christensen Community Chair of Social Work in Child Welfare at the Abbott School, and obtained bother her Bachelor’s in Social Work and Master’s in Social work UNO. For Reay, this project is about access, student-centered teaching, professional preparation, and the ability of faculty to shape materials around the communities their students will serve.
“The foundation of social work is based in addressing social issues, fostering community development, and promoting community-based participatory research and education,” Reay said. “As a result, the use of Open Educational Resources is highly aligned with the profession’s core values and mission.”
At UNO, affordable content work is supported through the systemwide Open Nebraska initiative which helps students identify courses that use no-cost or low-cost materials before they register. As a partner in that initiative, UNO Criss Library’s Research and Instruction Services department works multiple initiatives to advance affordable content adoption. Reay has been an ally in our efforts since their near-infancy.
She has completed two Affordable Content Grants: a Spring 2021 project with Professor Emily Soener for Human Behavior in the Social Environment I and II, and a Spring 2023 project for Social Work Leadership. She is also the author of Guidebook for Clinical Supervision in Nebraska, an OER published through UNO Criss Library using the Pressbooks publishing platform.
That work reflects a larger culture within the Grace Abbott School of Social Work. Present and past Faculty across the school have been highly engaged with the Affordable Content Grants program, including:
- Deborah Circo, Mental Health Policies for Social Work (Fall 2023)
- Yiwei Zhang and Laurel Sariscsany: Social Welfare Policy (Spring 2023)
- Liam Heerten-Rodriguez: Social Work Practice with Sexual Concerns (Summer 2019)
- Jeff Knapp: Social Welfare Policy (Summer 2019)
Currently, the Grace Abbott School is engaged in a major project: integrating free-to-access and low-cost materials in every course of the online Bachelor of Social Degree. In partnership with the team at Innovative and Learning Centric Initiatives, the new degree pathway is scheduled to launch in Fall 2026, with the first cohort of 25 students already admitted.
Students will move through the program together, taking the same courses each semester in a cohort model that combines weekly asynchronous learning with regular synchronous online sessions.
Dan Hawkins, Director of Online Development in the Division of Innovative and Learning-Centric Initiatives, said the online BSSW development grant involves 21 courses and 15 faculty members. Course development began in May 2025, and the grant is expected to be completed in early 2027.
Hawkins, who previously helped develop the first no-cost degree pathway in the University of Nebraska System while chair of UNO’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology, said social work was a natural partner for this next effort. He worked on that earlier project in partnership with Dr. Jaci Lindburg, now Assistant Vice President for IT Strategy and Learning Technology at the University of Nebraska System and the 2025 Textbook Mavericks Honoree.
“Social Work and Digital Learning have had an excellent partnership since, and before, I started in this role,” Hawkins said. “As soon as we mentioned the possibility of a fully OER pathway to the degree, the Social Work leadership jumped at it.”
That willingness to act, Hawkins said, has defined the project.
“We couldn’t ask for better partners than the School of Social Work,” Hawkins said. “Susan is thoughtful, proactive, and flexible as a leader, and the faculty clearly care about creating high-quality, meaningful online courses. They all put students first.”
Reay traces the online BSSW project to a wider moment of reflection within the school. Through departmental strategic planning, faculty identified the need to refresh the curriculum. Student focus groups reinforced that students had clear ideas about their own goals and the future of the program. From there, Reay and Ellen Rice, Assistant Director of the Grace Abbott School of Social Work, began conversations with Sarah Edwards and Hawkins about launching a fully online BSW program.
“The online BSW/OER pathway checked a lot of boxes,” Reay said, citing enrollment, student options, flexible online pathways, and the school’s desire for a truly student-centered approach. “We value the student experience, their wants and desires. We also recognize that our students come from all walks of life.”
For social work education, Reay said, OER offers more than affordability. It allows faculty to adapt course materials to current research, emerging best practices, and local needs. A cohort of students preparing to serve rural Nebraska communities, for example, may benefit from case studies and practice examples that reflect rural systems rather than relying primarily on examples drawn from large coastal cities.
“OER enables educators to incorporate these relevant experiences, whereas commercial textbooks may rely on examples drawn from large urban coastal areas that may not resonate with students' lived experiences or future practice environments.” Reay said. “Also, our faculty like the collaboration with [the] librarians at UNO. [They] always provide us with interesting ways of looking at the learning outcomes and teach us about new resources. OER provides opportunity to be creative in our teaching methods and that is reflected in our curriculum and appreciated by our faculty and students.”
Looking back, from Reay said that her experiences completing multiple Criss Library Affordable Content Grants positively informed her leadership ability in this project.
“The first time was a bit uncomfortable,” Reay said. “I had to get away from the traditional method of teaching, through a Cengage textbook that we had been using for more than 10 years, just using the new edition of the same old thing. I had to move toward putting trust in the process and partnerships to find something better.”
Those early meetings with library partners helped, she said, as did discovering a national community of social work scholars committed to OER. The experience was not only about replacing a textbook. It changed how she thought about teaching, curriculum, and leadership.
“I just couldn’t feel good about using that old dusty textbook anymore,” Reay said. “I believed there absolutely had to be something better.”
As she moved into leadership roles, the experience gave her a broader lens for thinking about the entire Grace Abbott student experience. What, she asked, should social work students know on the first day of their jobs? How can faculty teach to their strengths? How can course materials support a more engaging classroom?
“Our faculty deserve the opportunity to teach to their strengths,” Reay said. “Utilizing OER provides them so much more opportunity to teach with passion, and in turn, that facilitates an engaging classroom.”
Here in the Research and Instruction Services department, we’re thankful that our relationship has continued on into the current degree development project, in the role of providing consultation help to faculty underrating course development. We’re looking forward to seeing what’s to come, and we’re happy to honor the Grace Abbott School of Social Work as our 2026 Textbook Maverick Honorees.
Check out this article if you are interested in learning more about Affordable Content at UNO and the positive impact it has had on both students and the university.
About Criss Library
The Dr. C.C. and Mabel L. Criss Library fulfills the UNO mission through dynamic services, highly qualified and adaptive personnel, unique and extensive collections, and accessible learning spaces and environments. With its location on UNO’s Dodge Campus, Criss Library provides UNO students, faculty and staff, and the Omaha community with the resources and materials needed to excel academically and professionally.
