Lake Washington Institute of Technology (LWTech) and Pierce College received a grant from Achieving the Dream (ATD) to create new degree programs using high quality open educational resources (OER) in new degree programs. The two colleges were the only ones in Washington state to receive the grant. The initiative, which involves 38 community colleges in 13 states, is designed to help remove financial roadblocks that can derail students’ progress and spur improvements that will increase the likelihood of degree and certificate completion.
The annual costs of textbooks are about $1,300 per year for a full-time community college student and amount to about a third of the cost of an associate degree. This cost, research shows, is a significant barrier to college completion. Students who don’t complete college are over 50 percent more likely than those who graduated to cite textbook costs as a major financial barrier, according to a study by the research firm Public Agenda.
Achieving the Dream (ATD), a national community college reform network, is managing the new OER Degree initiative on behalf of a consortium of investors that includes the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Great Lakes Higher Education Guaranty Corporation, the Shelter Hill Foundation, and the Speedwell Foundation.
Equally important, using digital and interactive open educational resources such as open courseware will encourage faculty to teach students in more engaging and dynamic ways and invite students to become more actively involved in their own learning. The initiative’s requirement to create entire degree programs using OER also will trigger a careful re-examination of course content and sequencing to build up-to-date, cohesive degree programs. These degrees will be available to a minimum of 76,000 students over a three-year period.
At LWTech, new degrees using openly licensed content in Pre-Engineering (transfer) and Biology (transfer) will be available to 3,880 students over a three-year period. The Biology transfer degree is a program for pre-medicine, pre-pharmacy or pre-dental students.
LWTech plans to roll out new degree programs this fall. They will be converted to OER-only programs over the life of the grant. The OER Degree Initiative will create a library of high-quality, digital, open courses available to other institutions and the public at large. Making resources easily available to all is expected to encourage OER adoption even at non-participating institutions.
Colleges and states that have introduced OER initiatives have already seen significant results. Studies have shown that OER reduces costs and contributes to better grades, higher course completion rates and faster degree completion.
