Grant Proposal

Cover Letter

Date

CASH Committee,

 

RE: e-Textbooks Website

Dear, CASH Committee,

The University of California, xxx is pleased to present this grant proposal for your evaluation. As a team, we are pleased and looking forward to creating and sustaining a partnership with you in the provision of an improved access and reading intervention initiative for all students with the need to access textbooks and sell them back after use at reasonable prices. Based on the increased need to possessing personal textbooks for easier learning more students are in need of acquiring these books at favorable prices due to the limitation of funds. The objective of the e-textbooks programs is to offer assistance to all students with the need for affordable textbooks and a platform that they can sell them at reasonable prices thus increasing convenience, affordability, ease access and learning efficiency.

In the last one year, our team has been piloting the e-textbooks program with only a few students with the need for these services and dramatic improvements have been observed with more and more students achieving higher in learning. E-textbooks initiative offers students with an increased access to helpful reading opportunities at lower costs.

We appreciate CASH foundation for taking the interest in helping students develop capable skills while sustaining natural resources for the wellness of the community in general. Looking forward to a long run partnership. Please contact me if you necessitate further details regarding the proposal.

Thank you,

Xxx

 

Project Rationale & Plan

Statement of Need

The University of California, xxx is comprised of a diversified population in which about 40 percent has been established to be at risk in regard to learning performance for several reasons that include inaccessibility and premium costs in acquiring text books. This is some of the issues that are mainly driven by socio-economic difficulties. The university is eligible for the CASH funding and if the students are denied the opportunity to improve their learning abilities through creating convenience and affordability based on statistics, they are more likely to opt for absenteeism and doping out of school.

According to Armstrong & Lonsdale (2008), reports indicate that the most single important and influential force in regard to an individual’s learning success is the accessibility of reference texts books. Thus the website will not only be saving economic costs but will give these students the highest flexibility and satisfaction in the utilization of the textbooks as well as other additional class learning resources.

Program Description

The university’s textbooks access to succeed initiative will be helpful in enabling those students who are at risk to improve their engagement and learning skills in classrooms through the utilization of the affordable and readily available e-textbooks. Students utilizing this innovative learning system will have the capability to accessing classroom materials at ease using their phones or computers which will be offering not just the access to books but also to their entire curriculum. The students will thus improve their learning speed and comprehension which will, in turn, contribute in the achievement of subjects and courses proficiency (Brady, 2012). Included in the e-books access program will be a training day for the users and the specialists on the e-textbooks software features.

Background

Today, e-books websites are the dominating alternative for individuals without the time to fight for space in the physical library. In addition, this is the opportunity for those students that are socio-economically challenged to acquire learning materials at ease which has made learning even more convenient, flexible, interesting and affordable. E-textbooks are acquired almost instantly where individuals can buy, download on instant and begin to explore without having to struggle (Underwood & Farrington-Flint, 2015). More so there are no trees necessary for printing the books which make them environmentally friendly. Carrying the books is easier given that one can own a number of them at the same time and access them at any given location.

The University of California, xxx is in need of this program which seeks to accommodate diversity in learning. The program is beneficial because it will create ease of selling and buying. The core theme of this program is to improve the quality of individual’s life by the engagement of technological innovation and sustainability which will be driven by the ability to share learning resources. This will work to ensure that textbooks which are usually limited to the university are easily available to all the students regardless of their economic status. The development of the website will improve the quality of learning and ease both psychological and financial problem immediately.

Goals and Objectives

The prime goal of e-textbooks access initiative is to enable the students at risks with socio-economic disabilities to accessing premium costs textbooks acquire these books and other learning materials at low costs with convenience. The program is mainly objected at ensuring that all students are offered equal learning grounds where they can improve their learning skills that prepare them not only for academic but also for practical skills success. Based on the recent studies it has been established that the lack of textbooks access and other learning materials at any learning level is most likely to result in a disruptive learning, absentness, inattentiveness and increased rate of drop outs (Ward, Freeman, & Nixon, 2016). This is mainly influenced by having poor learning grounds and the need to achieving independence (Manzoor, 2010).

The purpose is, therefore, to enhance learning for all students and in particular for those that are from the disadvantaged situations in improving their general capability to achieve higher in school. It is anticipated that more than a hundred students will access their learning materials on the website every day. Standard textual access tests of the learning materials will be performed at the commencement of the program as well as at each annual operative year completion in determining the usage and the improvement obtained in reference to learning efficiency and comprehension speed.

The main objectives of the program include:

1. The provision of a measurable improvement in the comprehension, learning speed as well as learning attention period. The objective is grounded on that the targeted students are likely to double their comprehension and classroom engagement abilities and improve their course understanding by the end of each semester.
2. In addition, the program will enable socio-economically challenged learners to access their comprehensive curriculum via the utilization of assistive learning technology where they can read and participate in self-based tests with regard to their course subjects.
3. The provision of the learning disadvantaged students with multi-learning options that will be helpful in increasing their comprehension speed to the point that they can refer back to the content and learn further on their own.
4. Provide an entertaining and creative learning environment for the innovative and technology curious group which enjoys learning acquired from the innovative platforms.
5. Helping the English language disabled students to remain in their regular classes with colleagues so that they can consistently learn in an environment that is less restrictive.

            Funds Use

            The invited funds will be utilized in supporting the start-up expenses of the e-textbooks website program. The prime cost will be incurred in website design, the support students salary and marketing which will mainly utilize advertising based on its ability to deliver timely, and accurate information to a wider range of consumers within the university setting. Social media marketing will be the prime advertising site based on its zero or less cost of promotion as well as the ability to acquire responses directly from the users. The advertising funds will thus be utilized in print advertisements within the school for at least three to six months.

            Core Themes Statement

            The project directly contributes to CASH’s major themes in improving life for the individual students and their respective communities by providing them with an opportunity to obtain academic and practical growth. The community will benefit given that it has students with the inadequate capability to afford premium textbooks based on their family’s financial constraints. Thus fewer costs will be set for the provision of this service which will reduce their financial burdens which in often times leaves them with no survival means. In simple terms, the program is mainly oriented at solving financial burdens possessed by individuals as a whole.

            The students will acquire an opportunity to achieving academic growth through learning proficiency and convenience. In the contemporary society flexibility and affordability are of great significance in the growth of satisfaction and the willingness to participate. The program will not only offer the textbooks access at affordable prices to the students but it will also be a platform where the used texts can be sold at justifiable prices a thing that has been desired for long. The e-textbooks programs are convenient for learning based on the presence of least restriction when equated to library learning that is in most cases full and is only open for a specific span which means that the materials cannot be accessed at will and in any given period or location (Kaplan, 2012). Our website will be open for longer hours and orders can be made at any given time and deliveries within the school setting will not be charged.

            Personnel Qualifications

            Our team is comprised of 6 students who will primarily operate as support staffs. The program’s coordinator Jennifer Amberson holds extensive experience working collaboratively with students particularly those that are socio-economically challenged and she is the one that was responsible for the implementation and the efficiency of the pilot test initiative. In addition, she is proficient and dependable with learning technology which incorporates both computer based software and hardware. Sue James is the website and logo design and currently working with the acquisition of trademarks and she will be responsible for crafting the required website’s features. On the other hand, the other three members, John, Clay, and Rebecca are the support for the initiative and they will be playing part in student’s involvement. I, on the other hand, I will be handling the marketing duties particularly regarding print and social media advertisement. Student’s applicants are required to be experienced in web design and management with at least a bachelor’s degree in relation to web development and optimization. This is because web designing necessitates string graphical skills and therefore their objectives will develop the web that is flexible, clear and easy to navigate both on small screens for mobile devices and for computer screens with the access of internet (Sidnell, 2010).

            Project Timeline

            The e-textbooks website program that is objected at providing affordable books at the user’s convenience will commence in September 2017. This is in the quest of getting adequate time to develop and test the website prior to the launching of operations. In addition, the time is more appropriate for the standard test to be conducted at the beginning of the semester and at the end.

            Summary

            Learning proficiency is of great significance in academic success, a thing that cannot be acquired without adequate and unlimited learning materials. Based on the need to acquire textbooks by the university students at a lower price the program is eligible for CASH funding based on the opportunity it possesses. The program is not, in particular, a profit oriented rather it seeks to improve the lives of the students and the community in general by providing them with learning opportunities that are innovative, affordable, flexible and accessible. The main goal is to eliminate the financial burden that is experienced by this set of students who are economically challenged. In addition, those that are disabled in terms of learning and language will have the opportunity to learn more on their individual terms. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Armstrong, C. J., & Lonsdale, R. (2008). E-books in libraries. London: Facet. American Library Association.

Brady, K. P. (2012). Technology in schools. Los Angeles, Calif: Sage Reference.

Kaplan, R. (2012). Building and managing e-book collections: A how-to-do-it manual for librarians.

Manzoor, A. (2010). E-commerce: An introduction. Saarbrücken: LAP Lambert Acad. Publ.

Sidnell, J. (2010). Conversation analysis: An introduction. Chichester, U.K: Wiley-Blackwell.

Underwood, J. D. M., & Farrington-Flint, L. (2015). Learning and the e-generation. Wiley.

Ward, S. M., Freeman, R. S., & Nixon, J. M. (2016). Academic e-books: Publishers, librarians, and users.