By: Angela Mennecke
As a pioneer in the Open Educational Resources (OER) movement, College of DuPage has launched the Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) initiative to alleviate the financial strain of course materials on students.
Building on the success of COD’s OER program, which has saved students more than $7 million in textbook costs since its inception five years ago, this new initiative promises to further enhance accessibility and affordability in education. Starting with fall 2024 registration, students can easily identify more than 1,000 courses designated as ZTC. These courses eliminate the need for students to purchase textbooks, workbooks and homework platforms.
Lauren Kosrow, COD’s Digital Content and Open Access Librarian, emphasized that this initiative is pivotal in eliminating barriers to student success.
“Many faculty members at COD have been utilizing OER to develop customized learning materials for their courses for quite some time. Now, with this new initiative, students can be informed about this no-cost option from the outset of the registration process,” she said.
The creation of COD’s OER program stemmed from a desire to close the opportunity gap and to provide equitable education for all, said COD Provost and Chair of the OER Steering Committee Mark Curtis-Chávez.
When high-quality, no-cost resources are accessible to everyone, independent of one’s socioeconomic status, it brings all students that much closer to reaching similar standards of education.
Mark Curtis-Chávez
“When high-quality, no-cost resources are accessible to everyone, independent of one’s socioeconomic status, it brings all students that much closer to reaching similar standards of education,” he said. “Students who might have forgone buying an expensive textbook in the past are able to access and utilize OER content, ideally contributing to their academic success.”
Recognizing the need for zero-cost textbooks and customizable math content tailored to their students, COD Mathematics professors Erica Hotsinpiller, Jackie Kraus, Rita Patel and Christy Peterson embarked on creating a textbook for the general education mathematics course at COD. With support from the OER Faculty Support Grant Program, their two-year effort will culminate in the implementation of the textbook in classes this fall.
“What the Math faculty, and faculty across other disciplines, have achieved is remarkable,” Curtis-Chávez said. “Our faculty are committed to student success and making educational materials accessible to all students from the first day of classes. Besides textbooks, OER resources also provide ready-made materials like slide decks, quizzes and tests. Transitioning to OER requires creating compliant supplementary materials, which entails a substantial workload. In the end, we know that our students will be more successful and more engaged in their coursework if they have their textbooks from day one. Through this initiative, we are making those textbooks free.”
Many of the College’s OER materials have been adopted by community colleges nationwide because OER materials are openly licensed and require no cost to access. Because of its dedication to OER, COD Interim President Dr. Christine M. Hammond said the College is setting the standard for Illinois and beyond.
“The College’s work has attracted a national and international audience, allowing us to use our resources to support not only our students but also to enhance student success on a larger scale,” she said.
As the program continues to evolve, Kosrow said the long-term goal is to support all of COD’s degree programs with OER materials, ultimately improving educational outcomes.
“While we are making great progress implementing OER in general education classes, we are starting to explore expansion into other academic areas,” she said. “Very soon we will be offering students a zero-textbook-cost Associate in Arts degree. We want students to know that we are working creatively to help them succeed in their educational journey.”
Pictured: COD celebrated five years of implementing OER on campus at a celebration event. Pictured from left to right: Alumna Ayesha Shafiuddin, Associate Dean of Library Jennifer McIntosh, Digital Content and Open Access Librarian Lauren Kosrow and Assistant Provost of Instruction Lisa Stock.