Abstract

The New Mexico Open Educational Resources Consortium Pilot Program (NMOER-CPP) is a 

project led by the University of New Mexico, a flagship Carnegie Research/Doctoral-Extensive 

university in New Mexico, and a Minority Serving Institution (MSI) as defined in the Federal 

Register (Invitational Priority). The NMOER-CPP will create the infrastructure for a consortium 

of New Mexico IHEs that collaborate on OER curricula and will develop a centralized OER Hub 

that connects faculty with OER professional development and support (Absolute Priority 1-Improving Collaboration and Dissemination). NMOER-CPP represents a consortium of 3 Institutions of Higher Education, one university and two community colleges, all MSIs; a 4-member 

Workforce Advisory Board; an educational technology expert; a university research office; and a 

university press to develop high-quality, accessible open educational resources with a Justice, 

Equity, Accessibility, Diversity, and Inclusion lens for courses leading to in-demand occupations 

(Absolute Priority 1-Improving Collaboration and Dissemination). Courses being redesigned 

lack OER that meet the project’s standards for quality and equivalency with commercial textbooks, including relevance, alignment with workforce needs, accessibility, and JEADI approach, 

or they may not currently be adopted in New Mexico. By creating and disseminating openly licensed course materials, this project addresses a gap in the existing marketplace and offers a replicable model for other projects (Absolute Priority 2-Addressing Gaps in the Open Textbook 

Marketplace and Bringing Solutions to Scale). This project will eliminate textbook costs in more 

than five pathway courses and improve student achievement (Absolute Priority 3-Promoting Student Success). Pressbooks will provide digital creation and distribution, including the capability 

to build accessible, interactive assessments that securely integrate with the Learning Management System gradebook (Competitive Preference Priority).
Building a Competitive Workforce: Career and Technical Education OER with 

Embedded Digital Skills is a Louisiana program designed to remove a barrier to access and 

completion in Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses that provide students with the 

skills and knowledge needed to succeed in in-demand areas of workforce in Louisiana and 

beyond. This program will be coordinated by LOUIS: The Louisiana Library Network, a 48-

member consortium of all the state’s academic libraries and a program of the Louisiana Board of 

Regents. It seeks to enable and enhance the delivery of open educational resources (OER) that 

include interactive assessment elements and materials that build the necessary foundational and 

industry-specific digital skills for priority CTE courses. These career-specific digital skills will 

help ensure learners have the abilities to participate in the Louisiana workforce and competitive 

digital economy. The included priority courses are in pathways that provide learners a way of 

achieving a postsecondary degree that is required for an in-demand occupation in Louisiana. This 

project features a collaboration between 2- and 4-year higher educational systems in Louisiana, 

secondary instructors engaged in CTE dual enrollment education, the library community, 

Pressbooks as an educational technology partner, and workforce representatives. 

The state’s priority CTE pathways align with the economic development goals and areas 

of high demand for industry. Select priority CTE courses for Building a Competitive Workforce

map to degree programs at Louisiana institutions that align with in-demand sectors and 

occupations, as reflected the Louisiana Workforce Commissions stars rating system based on job 

demand and projected job growth and earnings. This project will leverage a cohort model for

course development using twenty cohorts for nineteen CTE courses and one foundational digital 

skills content area. Proposed courses had an average annual enrollment of 1,948 students/course 

in the 2021 academic year across the 4 public systems. These courses also have a high DFW rate 

(letter grade D, F, or withdraw of 20% or more of enrolled students in a course) and higher DFW 

rates for minority students. 

Course materials will emphasize high-quality digital skills that are required in industry to 

help ensure students are poised success as they enter the workforce having had these 

foundational and industry-specific digital skills interwoven in curriculum to enable them to build 

competencies and ensure digital readiness. Additionally, this project meets the competitive 

preference priority by leveraging H5P technology to add interactive assessments in the open 

textbook to enable students to monitor their own learning. Corresponding courses built in the 

LMS will include assessments and content to allow instructors to monitor individual 

performance and engagement. LOUIS will provide training to enable full use of these strategies

by cohorts. It also meets the invitation priority of participation by minority-serving institutions 

and community colleges. Through the cohort collaborative course development model, 

participants will be recruited from Louisiana’s seven historically black colleges and universities

and the twelve community college and technical college system. These institutions have been 

active in LOUIS affordable learning initiatives. The Advisory Board is reflective of minorityserving institutions and community colleges in Louisiana, as well as workforce.

With a three-year budget of $2.125 million, Building a Competitive Workforce will 

impact the cost of course enrollment for CTE. During the pilot phase, anticipated savings per 

course is $2,800, or $280,000 total during the pilot. With annual enrollments of over 60,000 in 

the identified proposed courses, full institutional participation across systems would have the 

annual potential to save students over $6 million.
Abstract: Open ProfTech (Open Textbooks for Professional Technical Programs)

Consortium Members

Lead Applicant is the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges 

(SBCTC), a state government agency of higher education representing 34 community and 

technical colleges. IHEs that comprise the consortium include Highline College, South Seattle 

College, and Yakima Valley College. In addition, three workforce associations are included.

Projected Cost Savings

By 12/1/2026, the total projected cost savings for students through Open ProfTech textbooks will 

be at least $200,000 during the pilot (evaluation) phase. Once fully implemented statewide, the 

Open ProfTech project has the potential to save students $3,000,000 per year.

Competitive Preference Priority & Invitational Priority

Open ProfTech meets the Competitive Preference Priority. The project will improve 

instruction and student outcomes by personalizing learning experiences through two statewide 

mechanisms: MasteryPaths and Digital Badging. Open ProfTech meets the Invitational 

Priority. Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) represents

Washington’s 34 two-year degree-granting public institutions. Additionally, at least 12 system 

colleges are Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) with 8 Asian American and Native American 

Pacific Island Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs) and 4 Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs).

Abstract

This project aims to achieve two goals; 1) Eliminate textbook costs for high-enrollment courses 

in select high demand ProfTech programs at community and technical colleges in Washington.; 

2) Accelerate the adoption of Open ProfTech textbooks in these institutions.

To achieve the first goal, the project will create seven introductory-level open textbooks and 

ancillary materials in some of the highest-demand ProfTech fields. These include Introduction to 

Information Technology; Introduction to Forensic Science; Introduction to Computer-Aided 

Design; Health, Safety, and Nutrition; Principles of Computer Numerical Control Machining; 

Principles of Culinary Math; and Introduction to Periodontics. These textbooks will be used in 

the gateway courses required for multiple career pathways into high-demand workforce 

opportunities in Washington. The books will be published on Pressbooks, which supports 

nationwide distribution with multiple file export formats.

To attain the second goal, the project will develop a suite of professional development (PD) 

resources to help faculty members easily adopt and integrate Open ProfTech textbooks into their 

courses. These PD resources will include a comprehensive user guide, a live online workshop 

series, and a repository of case studies and examples of successful integration.

The project is built on the statewide consortium effort of Washington's 34 community and 

technical colleges with three leading IHEs, three workforce partners, and three college system 

councils. Through this collaboration, the project will deliver a set of textbooks with the highest 

level of relevancy, usability, replicability, and affordability to support our students in connecting 

to their career paths through academic success.
Alamo Colleges OER Consortium Project 2023 Open Textbooks Pilot Program

ABSTRACT

1. San Antonio College is the applicant institution and consortium partner institutions to carry 

out the grant activities include Palo Alto College (PAC), St. Philip’s College (SPC), Northwest 

Vista College (NVC), and Northeast Lakeview College (NLC). San Antonio College (SAC) 

as the lead institution, requests $1,963,747 over three years.

2. The project is titled “Alamo Colleges OER Consortium Project.” 

3. The project is for the period (October 1, 2023 – September 30, 2026) and will serve at least 

10,052 students and 75 faculty members within 15% of the top five enrollment course sections

across the consortium colleges. The project will provide an estimated costs savings of $2.2

million dollars with OER course development/adoption. The Alamo Colleges OER 

Consortium Project (Project) is designed to provide a framework by establishing 

consortium-wide best practices and support systems related to OER adoption and 

development. The Alamo Colleges OER Consortium will focus specifically on three 

activities: 1) Developing comprehensive, collaborative OER technology tools (CPP) and 

materials for the top five enrolling courses to maximize student savings; 2) Increase 

adoption of Open Textbook within the top five enrolling interdisciplinary courses that 

are also part of the core 15 credit hours for Career and Technical Education (CTE) highwage high-demand pathways. 3) Increasing Professional Development and a OER 

repository to support OER adoption by consortium faculty. Expected outcomes include

OER Enrollment (10,052 students) and OER Course Completion (9,036 students), and students 

performance for OER that is comparable or better than traditional texts including: OER Failure 

and Withdrawal Rates of 17%, Average Grade for Completed OER of 73, Faculty using OER

(75), Institutions Adopting OER (5), OER Courses Adopted by Consortium Members (336), 

Faculty using OER Tools (75), Average Cost Savings per Student ($109.73), and The Total 

Cost Savings for students using grant funded OER ($2,206,064).

4. Yes, founded on cited evidence-based practices, the Project addresses all Absolute Priorities 

as follows: the Absolute Priority 1: Improving Collaboration and Dissemination – SAC will 

partner with PAC, SPC, NVC, and NLC to form the Alamo Colleges OER Consortium for 

OER that advances student success with OLI and AlamoOPEN Absolute Priority 2:

Addressing Gaps in the Open Textbook Marketplace and Bringing Solutions to Scale –

working as a consortium to share OER materials and tools without affecting student 

perfomance. Absolute Priority 3: Promoting Student Success – by transitioning 15% of the

course sections of the top 5 high enrolling courses to OER to increase student attendance and 

participation, allowing faculty and students to be on the “same page” and increase content 

comprehension. 

5. Yes, addresses Competitive Preference Priority: Using Technology-Based Strategies for 

Personalized Learning and Continuous Improvement – by incorporating OER technology tools 

in Learning Management Systems for instructional delivery and adapting to student needs.

6. Yes, addresses Invitational Priority: Participation by Minority-Serving Institutions and 

Community Colleges by having all consortium partners being Minority-Serving Institutions (4 

HSIs and 1 HBCU) and all five being community colleges. 
1. Applicant Institution and Partner Institutions: The Ohio State University (OSU).

Partner Institutions: Coastal Carolina University (CCU), Columbus State Community College

(CSCC), Ohio Dominican University (ODU), Lakeland Community College (LCC), New York

City College of Technology (NYCCT), Southern State Community College (SSCC), and University of Florida (UF).

2. Project Title: Fortifying Open Education: Scaling Ximera for Enduring Impact

3. Target Population: Faculty and Students

4. Services and Proposed Activities: Trivialize the process of creating online content for

authors, develop a gradebook, improve ADA compliance, and use workshops to facilitate experimental development, authoring, and ongoing maintenance of our current texts.

5. Anticipated Results: Ximera open resources will be market competitive. The Ximera

community will expand. Adoption of Ximera resources will increase.

6. Absolute Priority Addressed: Yes. All of our partner institutions have Ximera courses,

many of which are established and run every year.

Absolute Priority 1 is met by holding in-person workshops, minicourses, and virtual workshops. Absolute Priority 2 will be met by our current material when we provide seamless

integration with learning management systems (LMS) and we provide accessible content. Absolute Priority 3 will be addressed by improving the discovery of our materials and by providing

accessible options for all students.

7. Competitive Preference Priority Addressed: Yes. Using Technology-Based Strategies

for Personalized Learning and Continuous Improvement will be addressed as our content is

completely open; students can explore any content we create at any time, without being enrolled in a course. Through our use of Universal Design for Learning Guidelines, we will make

our courses open and free to all.

8. Invitation Priority Addressed: Yes. Participation by Minority-Serving Institutions and

Community Colleges is addressed as New York City College of Technology (NYCCT) is one of

our partners.

9. Projected Direct Cost Savings for Students: With previous funding of around $200,000,

Fowler and Snapp were able to develop a complete online interactive OER solution that saves

students across several institutions over 1 million dollars per year. With this grant, we have 2

major institutions (OSU and UF) along with several complete courses and course sequences.

We estimate the savings for students to be between 4 million (expanding OSU and UF to all

large classes) to 10 million dollars per year.