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About James Glapa-Grossklag

 

James Glapa-Grossklag is Dean, Educational Technology, Learning Resources, and Distance Learning at College of the Canyons.

James is a recognized global leader in Open Education. He is past President of Open Education Global (OEG) and the Community College Consortium for OER (CCCOER). From 2016-20, he served as Global Ambassador for OER for the International Council of Distance and Open Education (ICDE). From 2016-19, he co-coordinated the California Community Colleges Zero Textbook Cost Degree program. In 2018, he was recognized as a Top 10 Global Influencer in OER for the past decade. In 2019, he received the President's Award from Open Education Global for "advancing open education around the world through his exceptional dedication, outstanding contribution, and exemplary service."

Beginning in 2023, he is supporting the largest-ever public investment in OER, serving as Technical Assistance Provider for the California Community Colleges’ Zero Textbook Cost grant program.

He has been an invited keynote and trainer on OER and digital learning in the US, Europe, and Asia. Highlights include:

  • In 2014, trainer on OER for the US Department of State in the Middle East and North Africa.
  • In 2016, opening keynote for the European University Information Systems’ Rectors’ Conference, in Krakow, Poland.
  • In 2018, consultation for the Taiwan Open Education and CourseWare Consortium, and a lecture tour of leading universities in Taiwan.
  • In 2019, Innovation Scholar in Residence for RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia.
  • In 2023, keynote for the National E-Learning and Digital Learning Conference Tainan, Taiwan

Currently, he is an OER Fellow for the Michelson 20MM Foundation, a faculty member for the Institute on OER for the American Association of Colleges & Universities, and a member of the Open 2030 work group organized by MIT Open Learning. Within California, he was a founding member of the organizing committee for the annual Cal OER Conference (2021-22) and is on the Advisory Committee for the California Alliance for Open Education.

Since 2020, he has co-directed the Open for Antiracism Program (with Una Daly), which supports California Community College faculty to leverage Open Education to make their teaching antiracist.

For the California Community Colleges, he directed the statewide Distance Education Captioning and Transcription grant from 2008-23.

James is Past President of the Directors of Educational Technology in California Higher Education (DET/CHE). He was a board member and Vice Chair of Intelecom, a board member of the Instructional Technology Council, and an advisor on educational technology to the Lumina Foundation.

He directed a US Department of State grant promoting study abroad opportunities for under-represented students and a US Department of Education FIPSE grant to develop Open Educational Resources. He co-led College of the Canyons’ efforts on as a partner on a US Department of Education Open Textbook Pilot grant.

He was a member of the Distance Learning Task Force of the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges. He has served on multiple accreditation visiting teams and co-coordinated evidence collection for the College’s institutional self-evaluation report.

James earned tenure as a faculty member in history, and has taught in online, hybrid, and face-to-face formats. He holds a BA in History from Illinois Wesleyan University, an MA in Humanities from the University of Chicago, a Certificate in Online Teaching and Learning from CSU East Bay, and a Certificate in Proactive Leadership in Higher Education from Cornell University.