CCCOER > Case studies > Opening Doors to Equitable Student Outcomes and Meaningful Career Pathways
Opening Doors to Equitable Student Outcomes and Meaningful Career Pathways
Submitted by
Dr. Cynthia Sheaks-McGowan, Professor and Chair, Department of Child Development and Education, Zero Textbook Cost Coordinator
Overview
Among the programs participating in the Improving Online CTE Pathways grant, Moorpark College went from having 15 ZTC-designated sections in Fall 2019 in one program (Child Development) to having a total of 53 in spring 2021 across three programs (Business, Child Development, and Journalism), not including the hospitality management OER that is in its final stages of development. Over the course of the grant project, they gained momentum as a team working together and became excited about what open education would do for their students and their courses. That excitement and momentum spread beyond just the initial faculty created courses around ZTC/OER, and now other faculty within their departments are also using ZTC/OER materials in their courses.
CTE Degree majors/certificates converted to ZTC/OER Pathways:
Business/Accounting
Child Development
Hospitality Management
Journalism/Public Relations
Published on February 08, 2021
Motivation
In 2019, Moorpark College was awarded a grant for Improving Online CTE Pathways grant funds from the California Virtual Campus Online Education Initiative (CVC-OEI) for a project called “Improving Online CTE Pathways: Business/Accounting, Hospitality Management, Child Development and Journalism/Public Relations.” This project involved certificate creation, course alignment, quality improvement, marketing, and the addition of industry and ZTC content to improve students’ overall performance in the Business/Accounting, Hospitality Management, Child Development, and Journalism/Public Relations programs. The team worked closely with Industry Advisory Board members to maintain curriculum alignment with local and state industry needs. Moorpark College Grant Summary
Initially, only child development and journalism committed to finding OER as part of the grant, but the benefits of zero textbook cost courses attracted more interest than expected. In the end, business converted 5 courses and hospitality management is creating their own OER. The hospitality management department, led by Christy Douglass, found some openly-licensed materials, but they weren’t comprehensive enough to meet the needs of the department. Instead, she decided to create OER herself. She applied for an additional grant through the OERI, and is currently collaborating with other faculty across the state to complete an openly-licensed resource, Introduction to Hospitality Management.
“The grant helped me find that there weren’t available resources and lit a fire under me to do something about it. I am honored to be leading a team that is creating the first full OER text in our discipline.”
– Christy Douglass, Hospitality Management Faculty & Program Lead
Video
Moorpark College presentation by Dr. Cynthia Sheaks-McGowan from Dec 2, 2020, CTE Pathways Celebration
Challenges
When asked what the biggest challenge was, 78% of faculty involved said it was the time required to locate resources, but they all indicated that it was time well-spent. When asked, “Will you use OER or Zero Cost/Library resources to serve as course material for courses beyond the scope of the grant?” 100% said, “Yes” (10 faculty surveyed, 9 respondents). Some faculty encountered more challenges than others, but everyone became invested in creating as many ZTC-designated courses as possible.
Table 1. Survey of faculty who were involved in grant program on what the biggest challenges were
When starting out, the team had to decide, do we start by looking for OER, or do we start by aligning our courses with the CVC-OEI rubric? Time was limited and they found it was easier to find resources first, or at least to have an open textbook or resources to build around. Much of the work happened concurrently, which was challenging. It is easier to have resources and then build the course.
Be mindful around document accessibility
It is important to be mindful of document accessibility when adopting OER into course materials. With Sheaks-McGowan’s Child, Family and Community course, for instance, she was able to adopt and adapt a textbook created at College of the Canyons; however, there were accessibility challenges around the PDFs and loading them into Canvas pages. It became clear that assistance checking and improving document accessibility would support course conversion, so that faculty would only have to focus on content and integration.
The team also struggled with the lack of diverse openly-licensed imagery to use with course resources and readings. Nappy.co was found to be a particularly useful resource.
Every Discipline is Different
Each discipline has different needs around courseware, particularly ancillaries. The Accounting department was completely onboard with the project and found a textbook that would work. Unfortunately, they still had a need for a homework system because of the computational aspects involved in accounting and the need for practice. This is still a significant barrier that they and other departments at Moorpark College encounter.
Patience “Sometimes people’s first reaction is not their final reaction.”
Change is challenging and requires time to implement. We have to be patient with ourselves and others. The business department initially wasn’t very interested, then they made amazing strides. Take your time, don’t push people too hard, instead provide the support and tools that they need.
Incentives
When asked about the most helpful support or incentives, faculty responded: 1) established deadlines, 2) compensation, and 3) coordinator support.
Examples of deadlines were, “by this time, we’ll have looked at a certain number of resources” or “by this time, we’re hoping to actually have made some adoptions.” Despite having multiple demands for their time, the team indicated that regular meetings as a group were valuable, helpful, and supportive in meeting project deadlines.
Compensation was mentioned as an important incentive. It is important to note that there was not a huge amount of compensation, but it did honor faculty’s time and investment, which is a critical consideration.
Coordinator support was also frequently cited as being helpful. Sheaks-McGowan would help faculty with their search for ZTC/OER, provide professional development, collaborate with the library, and look for additional resources for courses. Faculty knew that they weren’t involved in this quest all on their own.
Advice for faculty from faculty:
“It seems overwhelming at first but if you have your mind set on student learning first, that will help. Once you begin to re-create your course incorporating OER/ZTC, you will find that your course becomes even more efficient, effective, and engaging for students as well as yourself. The guidelines and rubric standards walk you through each process and your course will be amazing! Your students will love it and they will not ask as many questions. I could go on and on, this adoption is the best!”
– Kathryn Dean, Child Development Faculty
“Work with Cindy and research if ZTC could work for your area of instruction. All faculty should give it a chance and at least research the resources available. Ultimately, our students can benefit from our willingness to remain open-minded to this option.”
– Dr. Josepha Baca, Business & Accounting Faculty and Chair
“Get out there and look for it. Use what you can. Create what you can’t find. It will make a world of difference to your students… In addition to the economic savings, I anticipate your students will appreciate the currentness of OER/ZTC course materials.”
“Give it some time. We can’t always find what we’re looking for right away and that’s okay. There is good information out there and where there isn’t, we have an opportunity to create it.”
– Dr. Larisa Callaway-Cole, Child Development Faculty
Outcomes
Discipline
Separate Courses Identified
Courses Converted
ZTC Section Count Fall ‘19
ZTC Section Count Spring ‘21
Business/Accounting
0
5
0
17
Child Development
8
6
15
29
Hospitality
0
0*
0
0*
Journalism
5
5
0
7
Table 2. ZTC/OER courses in Fall 2019 vs. Spring 2021
Impact
When faculty were asked about the impact of their work, they noted the positive impact that ZTC/OER courses had on students:
“Now that my course is ZTC, it is more available to students of all socioeconomic levels. It also allows me to modify the content of my course rather easily.”
“Higher student enrollment.”
“I was able to update the course content in 5 courses and rewrite them all!”
“Once ancillaries and the Canvas shell are complete, I anticipate that the text will be adopted by dozens of community colleges and universities throughout the state and even the country, saving thousands of students from purchasing traditional textbooks each year.”
“Clearer course instruction and material.”
“Fewer D, F, and Ws” – between Spring 2019 and Spring 2020
Sheaks-McGowan noted that she had better success rates in her course despite the COVID-19 pandemic disruptions. When surveyed, students in the course were overwhelming positive in their response to the open textbook (n = 42). The only difficulties mentioned by three students concerned gaining access to a print version of the text. Below are several comments from the anonymous student survey:
“I think free college books are great because college itself is a lot of money. The online books that I have been using, not just for this class but others, are great. It doesn’t make my back hurt in my backpack.”
“Open education textbooks were very beneficial. I liked being able to have my textbook with me wherever I was. I think that the online textbook was very good.”
“I liked the open education textbook. I thought it broke down the need to know information and was a much easier read.”
“I like the textbook. I thought it was fabulous that it was no cost — it really did help. I appreciate it.”
“Loved this! Half the time I don’t even use the textbooks required. Just a waste of money.”
“I liked that all the reading material was given to me on my computer. I feel that this is a great resource for those of us that can’t afford to purchase a book. It’s better for the planet, too. Everything is online now — it worked great.”
“The textbook was easy to access and It helped me review different concepts more in-depth.”
“This is the first class that I have taken with a no-cost textbook and I enjoyed it. The material was straightforward and easy to access. I would take a class that offered this again.”
– student responses when asked how they felt about using ZTC/OER in their class
Cost savings to students as a result of these course transformations are substantial. Using the average textbook cost figure of $100, in fall 2020, the savings were calculated to be $62,700. With the additional open textbook sharing and adoptions that occurred between fall ‘20 and spring ‘21, the savings to students are projected to be $112,400. These savings will continue to be accrued with subsequent offerings of these ZTC courses.
Sustainability
When asked about other benefits beyond those directly to students, and how going forward they can make this more sustainable within their departments and on campus, faculty said:
“I will share the shell with the discipline and we’ll work on creating a master shell that could be used as a template for our adjunct faculty.”
– Navreet Sumal, Business Faculty
“This will be the backbone of our development in curriculum.”
– Kelsey Stuart, Journalism Faculty
“I believe we will create an OER/ZTC degree.”
– Shannon Coulter, Child Development Faculty
As indicated by the comments above, the utilization of free and open resources to create ZTC courses creates a sustainable path moving forward to offering responsive curriculum, ensuring student access, and supporting student achievement.
Future Aspirations
This grant program was the push Moorpark faculty needed to get the ball rolling with OER/ZTC. “Giant Snowball” by Kamyar Adl is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Looking forward, the faculty envision that this project will enhance their programs, promote equitable student outcomes and career readiness, and attract new students. All disciplines involved aim to develop full programs that offer zero textbook cost pathways. Ultimately, the model developed through participation in the CVC-OEI grant can be used to spread open education practices across the Moorpark campus to create complete zero textbook cost degree pathways that are responsive to student and industry needs. While the initial attraction to this project focused on offering no-cost solutions for student access, the benefits realized went far beyond creating free textbook options. The comment below summarizes some of the many benefits of this project.
“The grant was the push I needed to leave the comfort of publisher created materials and adopt OER/ZTC materials. Focusing on adopting OER/ZTC course materials encouraged me to hone in on my course objectives and learning outcomes to explicitly connect my materials and assignments with those objectives and outcomes.”
