Washtenaw Community College is the first community college in Michigan to participate in a pilot program to help eliminate the use of costly textbooks in the classroom.
The Kaleidoscope Project, funded by Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC) and supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation among others, seeks to create a new learning framework using open educational resources (OER) instead of textbooks. WCC will receive a $3,000 institutional honorarium from the Cerritos College Foundation to implement the program.
“We chose subjects that represent some of our highest enrollments to pilot this effort. Our goal is to give the broadest range of students, especially those at risk, access to all course materials the first day of class,” said WCC President Rose B. Bellanca. “It is a real honor to be the first community college in Michigan offering this opportunity to students.”
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During the WCC 2013 Fall Semester, select sections in College Reading and Study Skills, Introduction to Psychology, and Intermediate Algebra will be taught using OER instead of textbooks. There is no additional cost to students to participate in these select sections. Students who register now through Aug. 1 for the WCC Fall Semester will be able to lock in current tuition rates.