In June 2016 Austin Community College and seven other Texas colleges received a grant from the Achieving the Dream organization to develop degree programs that can be completed using open educational resources (OER) instead of proprietary textbooks. The goal is to save students money and improve success rates by providing open, online course materials that are free or available at minimal cost.

The consortium will develop materials for courses for the associate of arts and associate of science degrees in general studies. ACC is developing resources for two government courses, two physics courses, one math course, three biology courses, and a student success course.

ACC will schedule its first grant-funded OER course in spring 2017. By spring 2019 students will be able to earn the general studies A.S. or A.A. degree by taking courses using only open educational resources. ACC estimates students could save up to $4,000 by the time they graduate.

Faculty: Learn about incorporating open resources and materials.