Columbia State has launched pilot courses for two Tennessee Board of Regents Digital Engagement Initiative Open Educational Resources grants for the fall semester.

The OER grant program goal is to improve educational outcomes for traditionally underserved students through access to quality, inclusive and low or no cost educational materials via  programs focused on providing open educational resources.

“We hope by providing texts early and for free in a gateway course that all students take, we as a college will see an increase in student success,” said Christina Loucks, Columbia State English instructor and grant project director of English Composition I courses.

Columbia State received funding for English Composition I and English Composition II grant projects. The grant team members participated in a TBR-sponsored webinar series on OER development. They then wrote, revised and compiled textbooks and materials that are now available to students free of charge both online and in paper format.

“Collaborating with my colleagues to create the English 1020 OER course was incredibly energizing for me,” said Judy Westley, Columbia State associate professor of English and grant project director of English Composition II courses. “The collaboration process prompted me to look at my pedagogy and my students with new eyes. The course covers an incredible breadth and diversity of literary texts, which provides multiple opportunities to engage students and to show them how different themes emerge in different ways throughout literary history.”

In the pilot courses implemented this fall, with 480 students in total, the only potential cost to students is additional novels. These OER materials are now loaded in the Tennessee Open Education Hub, a statewide professional learning community for faculty throughout the state, which provides a place to build and share resources for the common goal of improving student success.

At completion of the pilot courses, teams will review and update the materials and courses using feedback from students and instructors. The OER materials will eventually be presented to the English department for wider adoption.

“We have 18 pilot classes this fall across three campuses and embedded dual enrollment classes across the Columbia State service area,” Loucks said. “We are excited to hear about how the pilots ran this fall and hope the English department will adopt the textbooks for the whole department to use.”

For additional information on the DEI/OER initiative, including a listing of all grants awarded, please visit https://www.tbr.edu/academics/digital-engagement-initiative.