The rising cost of textbooks has been cited by students as a major barrier to achieving their educational goals. A study by the U.S. based Student Public Interest Research Group (StudentPIRGs.org) found that almost half of students surveyed take fewer or different classes based on the prices of textbooks. Two-thirds of students skipped buying a textbook because of cost. U.S. community colleges have been promoting the adoption of high quality open educational resources (OER) to alleviate costs but the impact on students has been dependent on the availability of OER in varied subjects area. The emergence of OER-based pathways however has the potential to maximize impact for students who want to complete an associate degree or a career technical education (CTE) certificate. OER-based degrees, also called “Zero-Textbook-Cost degrees”, are pathways to a degree or credential with no textbook costs. Faculty have redesigned all courses in the pathway to use open educational resources (OER) for instructional materials. These degrees are gaining in popularity particularly at community colleges where registering for these courses can save students up to 25% on the cost of attendance for a 2-year degree. Faculty also enjoy greater academic freedom when they can select and customize open materials to enhance student engagement and support learning outcomes. In practice, it has been shown that students following a guided pathway complete their educational degrees more quickly resulting in less costs and more career opportunities. Hear from a panel of pioneering OER degree college leaders from Virginia, Washington, and California on how these degrees benefit their students and support their institutional mission and goals for open access and degree completion. In addition, panelists will share lessons learned for OER degree development and the challenges of sustaining and expanding the degrees across the institution.

1. This presentation is licensed CC BY 4.0.

4. The mission of Achieving the Dream
is to lead and support a national
network of community colleges to
achieve sustainable institutional
transformation through sharing
knowledge, innovative solutions
and effective practices and
policies leading to improved
outcomes for all students.

5. Institutional Capacity Assessment Tool
(ICAT)

6. Open educational resources
(OER) are freely available
materials that can be
downloaded, edited and
shared to better serve all
students.

8. Administrative champion
http://www.iona.edu/iona/media/Design/1092x572_Page_Headers/PresidentsOffice.jpg

9. Institutional Strategy
CC-BY: https://www.flickr.com/photos 21218849@N03/15623270726/

10. Faculty Ownership
CC-0: https://www.pexels.com/photo/behind-of-woman-gesturing-6385/

12. Offer at least one OER degree with at least
one (1) section of every required course and at
least one (1) section of a sufficient number of
general education and other elective courses
Collect and share student data to support the
initiative’s research and evaluation program
Grantee Goals

13. Share all educational materials developed
through this project with the public
Ensure access by and support for low
income students and students of color in
their OER degree programs
Grantee Goals

14. Research & evaluation
Educational outcomes of OER Degrees
Economic outcomes of OER Degrees
Implementation of OER Degrees

15. Funders Partners

16. Timeline

17. Thank you
Richard Sebastian
Director, OER Degree Initiative
Achieving the Dream, Inc.
rsebastian@achievingthedream.org
@rasebastian