Textbook Affordability Project Administered by the University Library

About Dr. Tido Janssen

Dr. Tido Janssen has served on the faculty at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley since 2010. His main teaching responsibilities in the UTRGV School of Music are Applied Cello, Chamber Music, Methods Classes for Music Majors, and repertoire and pedagogy classes for musicians.

He is the founder and director of the UTRGV Cello Festival hosting cellists from the Rio Grande Valley to work with nationally and internationally known cellists.

A native of Germany, Dr. Janssen studied cello performance at Folkwang Hochschule für Musik in Duisburg (Germany) before continuing his studies in the US. He holds a Master of Music degree from Boston University, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of North Texas.

Before joining the music faculty at UTRGV, Dr. Janssen served on the faculty of the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada, and Hardin Simmons University in Abilene, Texas. As a charter member of the University of Lethbridge faculty ensemble Trio Amaranth, he has performed extensively throughout western Canada. In Abilene, TX, he was Principal Cellist of the Abilene Philharmonic and Abilene Opera Orchestras, and founding director of the Abilene Summer Music Festival, an orchestra camp for middle and high school students.

As a performer Dr. Janssen has repeatedly appeared in Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Austria, Canada, and throughout the US. He has recorded for Deutsche Welle, Public Radio, and Centaur Records and has been a member of the New Hampshire Music Festival Orchestra since 2000, currently serving as the co-executive director.

Course Redesign Project and Experience

Dr. Janssen has designed his Music Appreciation class with affordability in mind for many years. In 2023 he decided to include Open Educational Resources (OER) to the list of recommended learning materials for his class.

With this additional resource, he redesigned the lectures for his classes to include information from the Open Educational Resource (OER) textbook which is available for free ($0) in the Open Textbook Library. He also created PowerPoint lectures for his students which directed them to optional additional in-depth reading within the OER textbook. These supplemental readings were not required to succeed in the class but provided an opportunity for students to delve deeper into various topics of interest.

Reflections

Overall Dr. Janssen believed including the OER textbook option to his course provided him a lot of flexibility to design the semester coursework around his ideas without being too closely tied to the outline of a textbook. This proved to be an interesting challenge but he found it helpful to add a solid OER reference for his students. He did not receive any direct student feedback, but he did see a large jump in the enrollment in his class. After implementing this new course structure, he believes this was the perfect option for him and his courses. He wants to thank the UTRGV Librarians for all of their encouragement and support through this process.