Bridgeport’s Housatonic Community College has received a two-year, $100,000 grant from Achieving the Dream to fund open educational resources (OER), providing the college with funds to develop new degree programs that are accessible electronically.
Among other things, the funds will allow students to access textbooks ”“ which can cost a full-time student more than $1,000 per year ”” and coursework digitally. In addition, OER allows instructors to design degree programs and courses using a variety of immediately relevant material.
HCC is the only community college in Connecticut to receive the grant, which was awarded to 38 community colleges in 13 states.
Achieving the Dream, based in Silver Spring, Md., is a comprehensive non-governmental reform organization serving over 4 million community college students.
OER began in 2002 when MIT initiated its OpenCourseWare project; it is now internationally accepted as a viable teaching and learning mechanism.
