A panel of U.S. community college leaders will discuss publicly funded projects that promote students success through open education policies including the U.S. Department of Labor’s Trade Assistance Adjustment Community College Career Training (TAACCCT) grants, statewide efforts promoting OER such as the Virginia Community College System and the California Community College Open Education Initiative, and individual colleges that are funding faculty adoption and creation of OER.
Affordability of education remains a significant barrier for students as instructional material and tuition costs have risen dramatically in the last decade. Early pilots have shown the use of open educational resources (OER) to be effective in lowering costs while maintaining or improving student learning outcomes. As these proof-of-concept pilots have matured, policy support and funding from within the public sector has emerged. The OER ecosystem has grown dramatically in recent years as federal agencies and state governments have created new grant projects that require use of open educational resources to increase degree completion and career readiness. As public funding to support open education grows, community and technical colleges are implementing local open educational practices and policies to fulfill their mission of expanding access to education including support for faculty in the adoption of OER as an alternative to expensive commercial materials. As these efforts become part of operational budgets, sharing educational resources will become an institutional practice rather than an exception.
Panelists and their Projects:
Barbara Illowsky will share the California Open Education Initiative funded in 2013 by the state legislature to dramatically increase the number students who obtain college associate degrees and transfer to four-year colleges and universities each year by providing online courses and services within a statewide Community College Online Education Ecosystem. Special attention is given to ensuring retention and success through basic skills support and other services, especially for underserved and underrepresented cohort groups.
Phillip Davis will share the Geographic Information Systems certificate program that he and colleagues developed as part of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Trade Assistance Adjustment Community College Career Training (TAACCCT) program. The TAACCCT program has disbursed 2 billion dollars over the last four years to support development of regional workforce curriculum and job placement services at community colleges. All curricula developed through these grants must carry a Creative Commons license allowing its wide sharing and reuse at other colleges.
James Glapa-Grossklag will share College of the Canyon’s widespread adoptions of open textbooks across the curriculum including high-enrollment transfer areas, the trades, and developmental education. Learn how the College has raised faculty awareness and supported implementation of open education, by focusing on the alignment of the college mission with the values of open education.
Quill West will share Pierce College’s process and efforts in developing the Pierce Open Pathway, a zero textbook cost degree that will launch officially in Fall 2016. The Pierce College District is using institutional funds to develop the Associate of Arts Direct Transfer degree pathway. Simultaneously, Pierce College is scaling open education adoption among three diverse faculty groups at distinct institutions. Quill will also discuss the Library as Open Education Leader grant, a statewide initiative funded by the Library Services Technology Act and the Washington State Library/Secretary of State Office. The Library as Open Education Leader project is working to place librarians as leaders in open education in 20 of Washington’s 32 community and technical colleges.
Richard Sebastian will introduce the Virginia Community College System’s Zx23 Project, a Hewlett-funded initiative to scale the Z-Degree, the zero-textbook-cost degree model developed by Tidewater Community College, across all 23 of Virginia’s community colleges. During the first year the project will provide funding, support, and training to 15 additional community colleges to build pathways to their own Z-Degrees.
The Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER) is an associate consortium of the Open Education Consortium focused on expanding student access and enhancing teaching and learning. CCCOER has created awareness and promoted adoption of OER through a collaborative community of faculty, administrators, and staff that shares best practices for OER adoption at the public two-year colleges. In 2011, CCCOER joined the Open Education Consortium and now has over 250 participating colleges in 21 North American states and provinces who participate through individual, district, and statewide memberships.