P116T190013

Lead Applicant: Chippewa Valley Technical College (CVTC)

Consortium Institutions: Gateway Technical College (GTC), Northeast Wisconsin Technical 

College (NWTC), and Madison Area Technical College (Madison College).

Award: $2,504,064 Project Period: Up to 48 months

Open Resources for Nursing (Open RN)

Abstract

a) Target Population: Students enrolled in Nursing programs throughout the Wisconsin 

Technical College System (WTCS) will directly benefit from the open textbooks developed by 

WTCS faculty and staff. In addition, upon successful completion of materials, nursing students 

from across the country will benefit from open textbooks.

b) Proposed Activities: CVTC will collaborate with three other lead IHEs, 12 additional IHEs, 

and multiple entities throughout the state of Wisconsin including, regional employers, state-wide 

healthcare alliances, the WTCS, and Special Interest Groups, to achieve the following goals: 1) 

eliminate textbook costs for select high-enrollment courses in the Nursing programs at technical 

colleges in Wisconsin; 2) improve student learning outcomes by increasing the use of open 

sourced virtual reality scenarios; and 3) create a scalable open educational resource (OER) model 

that can be replicated across multiple disciplines and institutions. Project partners will obtain 

these goals through the following objectives/activities: 1) create five open sourced textbooks 

with input and assistance from faculty from WTCS technical colleges; 2) review open sourced 

content and validate that the materials include current industry practices and the virtual reality 

scenarios are true to life in the field; 3) implement all five textbooks at the four lead colleges; 4) 

develop 25 virtual reality scenarios to complement and enhance open textbook resources; 5) 

establish four, Virtual Reality Centers at the four lead colleges; and 6) provide easy access to 

nursing open sourced materials developed through Open RN for broader dissemination.

c) Anticipated Results: The following outcomes will be achieved by the end of the grant period:
1) at least 6,100 students will enroll in course sections that use open textbooks developed under 

the grant; 2) the average cost savings for students at the colleges implementing all five open 

textbooks will be $694 per student; 3) the total textbook cost for students who use open 

textbooks will be 47% less than students in the same program who use traditional textbooks; 4) 

80% of students enrolled in an open textbook course will complete the course; 5) 75% of 

students and teachers using open textbooks will rate their quality, cost and ease of use compared 

to other kinds of textbooks they’ve used as “as good as” or” better” on at least 2 of 3 criteria; 6) 

among consortium members, 437 course sections will adopt open textbooks developed under the 

grant, representing 49% of all course sections taught for the targeted courses; and 7) once open 

textbooks are available in CSU-SkillsCommons, the materials will generate at least 1,000 

downloads yearly.

4. Competitive Preference Priority Addressed: Yes, Open RN will develop and implement 

five VR scenarios to complement and enhance each open textbook developed. The integration of 

adaptive learning assessments into the VR scenarios will create a personalized experience for 

students as they practice the skills and abilities needed to be successful in the workplace.
P116T190017

Lead Applicant: Arizona State University (ASU)

Consortium Institutions: Maricopa Community Colleges, Miami Dade College, and Ivy Tech 

Community College.

Award: $2,495,936 Project Period: Up to 48 months

Consortium for Open Active Pathways (COAP)

Abstract

The Consortium for Open Active Pathways (COAP) improves collaboration and dissemination 

of OER through a consortium of four IHEs representing almost 400,000 students, together with 

experts in open education resources (OER), digital learning design, learning sciences, edtech, 

and workforce development. The goal of this consortium is to expand the use of OER while 

improving quality, leading to cost savings and improved learning outcomes among diverse 

students in high-enrollment career and technical education (CTE) pathways. To achieve this 

goal, COAP will lower barriers to adoption of OER, focusing on issues of access and 

availability, and quality and content, thereby addressing gaps in the open textbook marketplace 

and bringing solutions to scale.

COAP’s systematic approach begins with a Pathways Analysis that evaluates existing 

CTE OER, guided by an OER Curation Protocol, to identify areas of maximum potential cost 

saving for the target population. Vetted existing OER populates a curated catalog, together with 

new Active OER developed by COAP’s Learning Design Team. Active OER implements active 

learning by using technology-based strategies for personalized learning and continuous 

improvement. Instructors will be able to adapt existing and new Active OER from the catalog 

using an innovative Open Course Builder to assemble freely sharable Open Active Textbooks.

Scaling across the consortium and beyond leverages a prior investment by the Bill and 

Melinda Gates Foundation in the Inspark Teaching Network, a successful consortium of 50 

colleges and universities sharing active learning courseware among 28,000 students. COAP 

adapts the proven expertise and resources of Inspark. Through COAP, the Department of
Education has a unique opportunity to maximize scale and cost savings (est. ~$5 million/year), 

promoting degree completion among thousands of low-income students in CTE pathways.