Three members of the 2015 Open Oregon grant cohort received new funding from the Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HECC) to continue working on open courses. Congratulations grantees!
Jennifer Kepka, Instructor, English, Linn-Benton and Academic Learning Skills, Lane Community College, received a grant to extend work begun on the the Oregon Writes Open Textbook, a scalable collection of currently in-use Open Educational Resources for first-level composition courses. The additional funding will enable Jenn to expand open course materials to both WR 121 and WR 122, as well as paying instructors to pilot OER for these courses. Learn more about Jenn’s work via a recorded webinar on her grant activities. Questions? Want to get involved? Email Jenn at [email protected].
Alex Jordan, Instructor of Mathematics, Portland Community College, used an Open Oregon grant to build inter-connectivity between two powerful open resources for mathematics education in order to make open math textbooks more accessible. The work makes it possible for an open textbook author to simultaneously use MathBook XML software to write their book, while using WeBWorK to write interactive example and homework exercises directly into their book. The HECC grant will fund an open MTH 251-254 sequence using this software. A separate HECC grant at Mt Hood Community College led by Jack Green will create an open MTH 111 course using the same software.
Theresa Pihl, Adjunct Instructor, History and Social Science, and Eastern Promise Professional Learning Community Leader will be participating in a HECC grant led by Jacquelyn Ray and John Schoppert to expand the use of OER in the US History course sequence. Theresa’s Open Oregon grant for HST 201-203 blew past initial savings estimates, reaching 280 students at 10 schools and saving $32,104.60 in one year by using open content shared via the grant team’s PLC LiveBinder.
A complete list of HECC grant awards is available at the state’s Open Educational Resources page.
