Dr. Layton was selected as 1 of the 5 recipients of 2024’s Open Educational Resources Awards based on her outstanding achievements and dedication in support of free textbooks and resources in her courses, with over 70 faculty nominated this year. The 2024 Open Educational Resources Awards Ceremony was held in the Texas A&M Hotel and Conference Center on March 27, 2024. Dr. Layton was introduced for the award by BiSSL Ph.D. student Hadear Hassan who nominated her for the award.
The Open Educational Resources Awards are sponsored by A&M’s Student Government Association (SGA), the Texas A&M University Libraries, and the Administration of Texas A&M University. The goal of these awards is to recognize faculty members who go above and beyond in adopting and demonstrating exemplary usage of Open Educational Resources (OERs) in their classrooms or taking active roles in the creation or dissemination of these open access resources. These awards seek to recognize faculty who promote or contribute to a culture of utilizing free academic resources and knowledge sharing in order to lessen the financial burden on students, and mitigate the overall cost of receiving an education. These awards are administered by the Academic Affairs Committee in the Executive Branch of SGA, as it is a top priority for them to reward the successful use of OERs in the most meaningful way possible.