Textbook Heroes

Ljudmila Bilkić

Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Slavic, German and Eurasian Studies

Affordable Academics:

Ljudmila Bilkić, assistant teaching professor in the department of Slavic, German and Eurasian Studies, is KU Libraries’ 2023 Textbook Hero selection for making learning fun, fresh, culturally relevant, and affordable using Open Educational Resources (OER). More specifically she’s being recognized for her efforts to convert the class materials for four 100- and 200-level courses over the past two years — completing an overhaul of the entire German-language sequence after 300- and 400-level courses were converted in recent years.

OER Impact on KU Students:

“We're teaching German, but it's not just German; it's many things: how you walk through life expressing yourself, how you prepare yourself to talk in front of a camera, how to improve upon your own intercultural understanding,” Bilkić said. “There are so many other nuances to this. Having the opportunity to craft the OER, the flexibility has been incredible.”

Josh Bolick, Head of the Shulenburger Office of Scholarly Communications & Copyright:

“The study of German is more accessible and relevant at KU thanks to the tremendous efforts of Ljudmila Bilkić, this year’s worthy recipient of the Textbook Hero award. Thanks to previous efforts, most upper division undergraduate German language courses were using low-cost materials, but the introductory core courses were costly. Dr. Bilkić saw an opportunity to eliminate costs for students and give instructors more control over the content and utilized the OER grant to flip those courses over a two-year period. It was our honor to assist with this project and recognize her great work.”