ATD College Presidents Introduce Congressional Staff to the Power of Open Educational Resources at Capitol Hill Briefing
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Achieving the Dream President and CEO Dr. Karen A. Stout, Bunker Hill Community College President Dr. Pam Eddinger, and Odessa College President Dr. Gregory Williams drew an audience of 30 Congressional staff members plus higher education policymakers and open educational resources (OER) supporters to a briefing on OER’s impact on community college student success. The presidents, leaders of ATD colleges that have embraced the use of OER, explained their colleges’ experiences using OER to save community college students money, keep them on track to graduate, and improve teaching. ATD is currently managing a multi-million dollar effort, the OER Degree Initiative, to spread the use of OER in 38 community colleges, including Bunker Hill and Odessa, to increase the number of students, especially low-income and underserved students, who earn degrees.
The two colleges have made tremendous strides toward offering students the opportunity to earn degrees made up of OER courses. Odessa’s Dr. Williams acknowledged that ATD’s emphasis on helping Network colleges approach initiatives purposefully was the foundation of the college’s progress with OER. When ATD announced the OER Degree Initiative, the college saw it as an opportunity to improve all degree-seeking students’ experiences at Odessa by removing a major financial barrier to staying in college. In the boom and bust cycle of the local Texas economy, textbook costs often posed a significant challenge for many students. So Odessa’s purposeful approach led to a decision to reach beyond ATD’s grant requirements and convert all sections of its 42 core associate degree courses to OER. Participating faculty have been enthusiastic about using OER and other faculty have begun to express interest, too.
Under Dr. Eddinger’s leadership, Bunker Hill Community College has taken a different approach to using OER. To ensure that course content is relevant and accessible to the college’s culturally diverse student body, the college uses OER to deliver culturally relevant pedagogy and community-based learning. The flexibility of OER allow faculty to customize their course materials to reflect students’ diverse backgrounds and are relevant to their interests. So at Bunker Hill, the power of OER lies in supporting personalized teaching and learning.
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