HCC’s Open Education Week: OER Degree Plan Nathan Smith, PhD OER Coordinator

We are ONE College – 3 Regions – 27 Campuses West Region Central Region East Region

By The Numbers – Student Demographics, 2015-2016 Gender Age Group

Overview: OER & Z-Degree Current HCC degree plans: AA or AS in Multidisciplinary Studies AA in Business Administration Current Campuses: Central campus (largest single campus at HCC) Northline campus (location of Business Center of Excellence) Online I would like to begin with a bit of refresher and update for those that may not be completely familiar with these initiatives: As OER Coordinator, I have a dual mission: 1) I promote and facilitate the adoption of OER by faculty and programs at the college and 2) I manage the Z-Degree program. The Z-Degree is one aspect of the overall OER effort. One way to think of it is that promotion and education on OER is a horizontal approach to OER course development, while the Z-Degree provides a vertical approach, integrating courses into a complete degree plan. Open Educational Resources (OER) are: “freely available, high-quality textbooks and other instructional materials that reside in the public domain or have an open copyright license.” These resources can be freely downloaded and, more importantly, edited and updated by faculty to address our specific SLO’s and course objectives. The “Z” in Z-Degree stands for “zero” cost for textbooks – a term first used by Tidewater CC in VA. - With the Z-Degree, we design a structured schedule of classes using OER that aligns with the advising plan for students in specific degree pathways. - Providing free textbooks and instructional materials translates into thousands of dollars in savings for students over the course of their degree. As you know, for CC students, textbook costs can sometimes exceed the cost of tuition. Moreover, with OER, we can provide textbooks to students on the first day of class, whereas when students pay for expensive textbooks, they often delay purchases until they have already fallen behind in the course. This means that using OER can improve student success and completion by increasing access to instructional materials. Currently the Z-Degree program is offered in: The Associate of Arts or Associate of Science in Multidisciplinary Studies The Associate of Arts in Business Administration

Timeline 2007-2015: de-centralized structure, grassroots movement on OER Spring 2015: Transform-ation: unified Instruc-tional Services Spring 2016: capstone, SLAC present-ation to BoT, AtD grant application Summer 2016: Kinder talks, charge from Chancellor, OER steering committee Fall 2016: Tidewater consult, OpenEd16, faculty survey and recruitment, and budget and policy planning Spring 2017: Kinder grant, Lumen, targeted degrees, structured schedule, faculty training Summer 2017: hired OER Coordin-ator, recruited students, developed courses, OpenStax IP Fall 2017: running 27 courses and 2 degrees, research proposal, planning for expansion

Overview of the Program   Fall 2017 Spring 2018 Sections 28 49 Online 11 25 Face to Face 17 24 Enrollments 712 1181 Courses 12 16 Campuses 2 3

Estimated Cost Savings   Z-Degree All OER Fall 2017  $  71,200.00  $312,000.00 Spring 2018  $118,100.00  $402,000.00 Total  $189,300.00  $714,000.00

Z-Degree Expansion Fall 2017: Central Campus AA, Business Administration AA or AS, Multi-Disciplinary Studies Spring 2018: Central and Northline Campuses AY, 2018-19: Central, Northline, Spring Branch, and Stafford Campuses HCC CORE Curriculum

Institutional Governance Instructional Materials Council Faculty and student surveys Cross-sectional membership Textbook adoption guidelines OER/Z-Degree Steering Committee OER Coordinator Full-time faculty position (full teaching release)

Rough Budget Faculty stipends: $63,000 per year $300 training stipend; $1800 course development stipend OER Coordinator: F-T faculty release OER Operational Budget, $25,000 Supplies, Contractor Services, Marketing Part-time administrative assistant Lumen Learning (inclusive contract) Sources: Kinder Foundation, $100,000 Institutional Funds, $150,000

Surprises and Challenges Supply and Demand Bureaucracy/Agreements Complexity and Communication Free vs. Open Intellectual Property Training and Course Certification Recruiting and Registering students Initial concerns (demand would far exceed supply); What actually has happened: some programs are reluctant to participate while other programs are worried about being left out; initially worried that we would be overwhelmed by demand, but it turned out that the nearly all (98%!!) of the students currently enrolled were unaware of the Z-Degree program. Getting people paid through HR/paperwork; negotiating contracts/working with legal So many moving parts (easy to lose some details): BA degree plan didn’t match published information; LTI difficulties; Complexity – program committee approval; communication – belief that Z-Degree will be mandated Committed to “free” for the Z-Degree, emphasizing “open” for broader OER initiatives (in practice, courses and curriculum developed for Z-Degree will be CC-BY, but faculty are encouraged to use library resources and other freely available resources that may not be open; conversely, institution will pick up cost of Lumen Learning fee for courses in Z-Degree) Intellectual property policy ought to encourage creation of content (some sharing of rights between faculty and institution); Initial training and course certification was handled by Lumen Learning; working to establish a training and certification process in-house; continue to use Lumen Learning for those faculty who want that option. Recruiting and registering students has proved to be a huge hurdle: need to orient students to the degree, have students identify as “Z-Degree” students, and encourage them to take full schedule in Z-Degree. Difficulty in finding students who fit the plan we are offering. Working on marketing and enrollment practice – over the summer, we captured 448 names and contact info for students interested in the program; only 7.5% attended a registration and only 3% enrolled.

Opportunities Plan (and be flexible) Identify your champions Use existing structures Coordinate with all stakeholders Educate the students and the wider community Start horizontal, then build vertical Coordinate with all stakeholders need your librarians, teaching and learning staff, financial aid, student services, faculty, executive leadership, institutional alignment, and focus Research proposal under review. Looking at basic student data (retention, persistence, success, enrollment intensity, and completion), also using surveys and focus groups to collect perceptions and usage. Working with bookstore to determine realistic cost savings numbers.

Sustainability and empOwERment Integrate with our Institute for Instructional Engagement and Development (regularize training) Marking courses as ZCB and LCB in PeopleSoft SIS Z-Core at all major campuses by Spring 2020 Possible duplicated enrollment of 14,000 students and savings of over $1 million. Currently working from a local grant – aiming to transition funding to internal sources. Use existing structures allows us to sustain much of the effort internally. Goal: altering the culture at the institution so that faculty, students, and staff understand OER and embrace the value of open for education.