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Open Textbooks Pilot (OTP) Program

Fiscal Year 2023 Summary of Funding

• FY 2023 Appropriation: $12,000,000

• FY 2023 Amount for New Awards: $11,709,310

o Funding Down the Slate from the FY 2022 Competition: $1,253,296

o New Awards from the FY 2023 Competition: $10,456,014

• Number of New Awards: 6

o Funding Down the Slate from the FY 2022 Competition: 1 New Award

o New Awards from the FY 2023 Competition: 5 New Awards

Institution Name State Type of 

Institution

Award 

Amount

Type of Award Abstract 

Page

California State 

University, Bakersfield

CA Institution of 

Higher 

Education 

(IHE)

$1,253,296.00 New Award Funded 

Down the Slate from 

the FY 2022 

Competition

2

The University of New 

Mexico

NM Institution of 

Higher 

Education 

(IHE)

$2,124,223.00 New Award from 

the FY 2023 

Competition

3

Louisiana Board of 

Regents 

LA State Higher 

Education 

Agency 

(SHEA)

$2,125,000.00 New Award from 

the FY 2023 

Competition

4

Washington State 

Board for Community 

and Technical Colleges 

WA State Higher 

Education 

Agency 

(SHEA)

$2,118,044.00 New Award from 

the FY 2023 

Competition

5

San Antonio College TX Institution of 

Higher 

Education 

(IHE)

$1,963,747.00 New Award from 

the FY 2023 

Competition

6

The Ohio State 

University 

OH Institution of 

Higher 

Education 

(IHE)

$2,125,000.00 New Award from 

the FY 2023 

Competition

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1. Applicant Institution: California State University, Bakersfield (CSUB)

Consortium Members: California State University, Bakersfield (CSUB), Taft College (TC)

Antelope Valley College (AVC), Bakersfield College (BC), and Porterville College (PC)

2. Project Title: POP THE CAP: Pathways Of Possibilities for Transforming Higher Education

Curriculum Alignment Program

3. Abstract:

Pathways of possibilities for students focuses on affordability and use of Open Educational

Resources (OER) for Curriculum Alignment Program (CAP) courses required for transfer

credit between Community Colleges and Universities. Training and support provided to

institutional consortium members encourages collaboration in the creation, design, and

curating of course materials that are high quality, accessible to all, and at no cost to students.

A shared OER assessment tool (QAR 4 OER) ensures quality assessment measures are

reached for the high level OER adoption proposed. A mixed-methods research design study

evaluates the effectiveness of OER in meeting student learning outcomes aligned with teacher

performance expectations (TPEs). A shared cloud serves to connect OER materials created

through the pipeline project with open access repositories.

3a. Target Population: Undergraduate Students in IHE in California

3b. Proposed Activities: 

1. Collaborative OER creation, design, and curation of 8 CAP courses fostering an ECE

pipeline between community colleges and public universities (Priority 1).

2. Training consortium and support for 8 lead faculty to evaluate and identify gaps, expand

and develop course and ancillary materials that can be replicated and shared across

institutions of higher learning (Priority 2).

3. A shared OER assessment tool [QAR 4 OER Model (Quality Assurance Rubric for Open

Educational Resources Model)] (Priority 2).

4. A mixed-methods research study that will examine the effectiveness of OER in meeting

student learning outcomes measured with alignment to the standard teacher performance

expectations (TPEs) (Priority 3).

5. A shared cloud connected to the CSU repository (MERLOT/Skill Commons) that was

funded by the Department of Education and accessible to all institutions across the USA

(Priority 2 & 3).

3c. Anticipated Results: 4 Pipelines, no textbook costs, student success (e.g., retention, grades,

academic motivation/learner efficacy), and Shared Cloud (i.e., open access resources).

4. Competitive Preference Priority Addressed: YES - OER courses designed using LibreText

Cool4Ed ensures alignment with student learning outcomes and ADA compliance with Ally.

The integration of UDL enables diverse uses of teaching pedagogies that supports multiple

learner needs.

5. Invitational Priority: YES - All 5 IHE are designated Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI),

 and Minority Serving Institutions (MSI).

POP THE CAP

Pathways Of Possibilities for Transforming Higher Education Curriculum Alignment Program

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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). 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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