HBCU AL$ Project by Maria Fieth

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Slide Notes

Affordable Learning $olutions (AL$) is a mindset that is evolving today's educational strategies. It includes a collection of tools designed to improve access to and decrease costs of quality education through the use and reuse of Open Educational Resources (OER). AL$ projects such as this are applicable for all populations and can be found in all parts of the world. This project's goal is to launch and sustain the OER and AL$ mindset in 45 HBCU institutions while developing a scalable model and support structure for all HBCUs across the nation.

Through generous funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, this HBCU AL$ pilot was created and is being supported through California State University Long Beach (CSULB) MERLOT and SkillsCommons and Tennessee State University teams. It includes 15 universities as central partners with each onboarding two Affiliate partner institutions. The project timeline spans October 2020 through March 2022 with scaling efforts to follow.

Support mechanisms such as customizable HBCU AL$ sites, HBCU AL$ Community Portal, HBCU AL$ Resource Center, archived OER instructional webinars, and curated content collections will be shared. This presentation offers a review of onboarding and institutionalizing processes with step-by-step instruction. All content is open and can be made available online for future reference.

This deck is an overview of the specific strategies being delivered by the CSULB MERLOT and SkillsCommons team

HBCU AL$ Project

Published on May 28, 2021

Made possible by the generous funding of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, CSULB's MERLOT-SkillsCommons team in partnership with the OER leadership from Tennesee State University have launched a pilot program among 15 HBCUs and affiliate institutions with the intention of scaling OER use and reuse to reduce costs and increase access of higher education.

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PRESENTATION OUTLINE

HBCU AL$ Project

Affordable Learning $olutions for HBCUs

Photo by Yingchou Han

Why We Care

Students spend $14+ billion for textbooks annually
Textbook costs have increased 4x inflation rate in last 4 years
Students stop buying or renting books
Student Success and completion levels diminish

Data via Bureau of Labor Statistics as quoted by Dr. Gerry Hanley, Executive Director, MERLOT SkillsCommons

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon

"The racial reckoning of 2020 has made clear that our nation is at an inflection point, and the Hewlett Foundation has taken a step down a path toward being a stronger, better institution that contributes to a more just America."

Charmain Jackson Mercer, Equity and Culture, Hewlett Foundation

Charmaine Jackson Mercer, Hewlett Foundation Chief of Equity and Culture

Read the full story here... https://hewlett.org/newsroom/hewlett-foundation-names-charmaine-jackson-mer...

Photo by Timon Klauser

Project Goals

Expand OER in Pilot HBCUs
Institutionalize OER Use
Create Scalability

Goal #1: EXPAND THE HBCU OER COLLECTION and INCREASE USE: The HBCU-MERLOT library will have over 150 OER capturing African American cultural contextual digital OER content aggregated, curated and/or created by African-American faculty and students. At least 45 Faculty Teaching ePortfolios will be published, and the number of visits to the HBCU AL$ website will increase ten fold.

Goal #2: INSTITUTIONALIZE OER STRATEGIES IN HBCU HIGHER EDUCATION through the HBCU AL$ team and Leadership Council who will produce substantial evidence of sharing exemplary policies, institutional plans, institutional practices and support for collaborative network of OER advocates through high levels of participation in HBCU online community, face-to-face meetings, and webinars.

Goal #3: SCALE THE ADOPTION OF AL$ STRATEGIES AND SERVICES IN HBCUs by lowering barriers to institutionalizing AL$ programs so over 15 HBCUs and their affilliates have implemented an effective AL$ initiative. HBCU AL$ team and Leadership Council provide the outreach, training, professional development, technology infrastructure, and technical assistance to HBCU members to participate, learn, adopt and adapt exemplary polices, plans, and practices for OER use and reuse.