News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2021-03-18-grant
March 18, 2021
Grant Received to Further OER Efforts
College of the Canyons will receive $370,149 in funding from the U.S. Department of
Education to further expand its Open Educational Resources (OER) initiative in partnership
with the California Consortium for Equitable Change in Hispanic Serving Institutions
Open Educational Resources (CC ECHO) program.
OERs are teaching and learning materials that have been released in the public domain
or under an intellectual property license as a no-cost alternative to costly commercial
textbooks.
“We are honored to have been granted this award from the U.S. Department of Education
along with three other California community colleges,” said College of the Canyons
Chancellor Dr. Dianne G. Van Hook. “This grant will be instrumental in supporting
College of the Canyons’ efforts to continue eliminating the barrier of the cost of
textbooks, which often can be higher than the cost of tuition.”
The $2 million grant—which was awarded to the West Hills College Lemoore as the grant’s
lead education agency—will allow for the development of culturally relevant OER and
for training materials for faculty, the creation of material on multiple open-license
platforms, and the launch of mini-grants for subject matter experts and students to
create culturally relevant OER materials.
“We are thrilled to receive this grant to further our OER efforts at College of the
Canyons,” said James Glapa-Grossklag, dean of educational technology, learning resources
and distance learning at the college. “We look forward to working with our grant partners
in finding new ways to reduce equity gaps at Hispanic-serving educational institutions.”
Over a three-year period, COC will receive $370,149 in funding to design and deliver
an online course for faculty at consortium partners to link OER with equity and culturally
responsive teaching. The college will also design and deliver online training for
support staff and student workers at consortium partners on the best practices for
developing and promoting OER.
In addition, COC will organize and host virtual and in-person events to promote OER
practices across the state. COC faculty will have the opportunity to create OER in
collaboration with faculty from consortium partners, via mini-grants managed by West
Hills College Lemoore.
At COC, free OER textbooks are used instead of commercial textbooks in hundreds of
courses, saving students more than $5,000,000 in textbook costs last year. During
the spring 2021 semester, students can find 427 class sections that use OER materials
instead of commercial textbooks, nearly one-quarter of all classes.
Ranked nationally No. 18 in The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine for enrolling the largest number of Hispanic students, College of the Canyons had
a Hispanic population of 15,703 students, totaling 45 percent of the total student
enrollment, which was 35,018.
For more information about the college’s OER efforts, please visit the Zero Textbook Cost webpage.
