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Go Open �Massachusetts!

Massachusetts Community Colleges Go Open Initiative

More courses, more students, more savings!

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The GPSTEM project is funded by a $20,000,000 grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration, Grant # TC-26450-14-60-A-25. This product was created by the grantee and does not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Labor.

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The Model

  1. MA Community College Open Education Council
  2. Offer statewide and regional trainings
  3. Offer Go Open grants to faculty
  4. Build/Select OER repository to support faculty
  5. Build a sustainable model

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Project Outcomes

  1. Decrease student costs �(Goal: save $1 million in the first academic year)
  2. Increase collaboration
  3. Tracking Data (retention, student success)
  4. Increase student and faculty satisfaction with course materials

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MCC Open Education Council

Role of the Council:

  • Promote open philosophy
  • Encourage collaboration
  • Support goals and initiatives
  • Statewide and local coordinators

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Statewide Impact

  • 122 faculty participated in the project

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  • Close to 9,000 Students will save over $1.2 million during the first academic year

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My Role as local coordinator

  • Promotion of OER on campus
  • Match faculty with support team of Librarians and/or Instructional Designers
  • Assist with questions about Accessibility and Copyright
  • Development of Project timeline
  • Collection of Assessment Data
  • Process payment upon submission of deliverables

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Statewide Initiative effects on local work

  • Extra support and security with statewide system
    • Networking
    • Opportunities to learn, teach, share

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  • Marketing and communication plan
    • Often a matter of just using the “FWD” button
    • Peer pressure

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  • Reputation building & Increased interest in OER
    • Resulted in administrative support, curious faculty

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  • Potential for future collaboration on OER projects
    • Lasting connections and shared interests

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RCC’s Experience with MA CC Go Open

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The Mass Go Open initiative was a great success at Roxbury Community College.

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Fifteen proposals were accepted with a total of over $127,000 student savings in textbook costs.

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The school will continue funding the initiative on its own and will have another round of proposals in October.

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RCC Example: College Experience

  • Four faculty members of the College Experience program adapted a college success OER textbook from the U of Minnesota.

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  • Customized this book to reflect RCC programs and policies.

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  • Created whole chapters to add to the OER. Now it’s the official textbook of the college experience program and is being used by every instructor.

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  • Over 320 students are using this OER in the fall with a savings of over $19,000.

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RCC Example: US History I

  • History professor first adopted chapters of an OpenStax history OER and then built on it.

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  • Focusing on the abolition movement in Boston and with collaboration with community organizations the faculty member created an OER titled “The Hidden History of Boston's Abolition Acre”.

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  • The faculty created a true OER using maps, documents, text and videos produced by students. The faculty even got some owners of material to license them under creative commons so that they can be used.

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  • Over 50 students are using this OER this fall with a savings of over $8,750.

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ENG 101 Statewide Project

  • The English Composition I OER Virtual Bookshelf was created to assist faculty teaching this course, which was redesigned in 2016-2017 as part of a statewide initiative.

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  • Twelve English faculty from seven community colleges participating in MGO joined together to create, adapt and/or adopt a wide variety of materials tied to seven shared student learning outcomes.

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  • As a part of this project, each artifact was peer reviewed and curated to facilitate ease of use.

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“What I Have Learned”

Middlesex Community College (Bedford/Lowell, MA)

  1. Have a dedicated source of funding for OER work
  2. Provide professional development in OER as a condition of OER project funding
  3. Build & sustain a community (peer mentors)
  4. Communicate your work to the whole college community
  5. Link OER to the college’s strategic vision & initiatives
  6. Identify course sections that have adopted OER
  7. Make OER part of your faculty development process

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NE OER Summit

June, 2017 at UMass Amherst

Two day, two part event

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Led by UMass Amherst, MA CC Go Open, Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium

Leadership Day run by Lumen Learning

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Over 260 attendees from all over the country

Second annual event will be planned for June, 2018

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Vision

  • Increased use of OER statewide for community colleges
    • Open degree pathways/100 level courses/Mass Transfer Block
  • Continued central and local support for OER adoption and development
  • Regular funding to support training and development
  • Targeted support for areas where little or no OER exists
  • Formal partnership with state colleges and universities