On Friday, November 22, Austin Community College was designated as a 2019 Star Award recipient for our work around open educational resources (OER), and in particular for our efforts to create Z-degrees (zero textbook cost degrees) that help our students stretch their financial resources. Z-classes and Z-degrees mean that our students’ finances can go farther because they are not paying $200 or $300 for a textbook.
Earlier this year we asked students how they would use the savings from their Z-classes. Here’s a very small sampling.
We sometimes forget to ask how our students are managing to pay for everything that college requires – not just tuition and fees, but textbooks and lab manuals and courseware access codes and calculators and nursing scrubs and a chef’s toque. We also know that many of our students experience food insecurity and housing worries and child care expenses. Our ability to help them juggle all these expenses through the course materials that we choose can have a remarkable impact.
To date we have saved our students approximately $4.5 million in textbook costs (using $100 as an average savings). The Star Award recognizes the commitment of faculty and staff who believe in the goal and who take a chance on something different like OER.
Thanks to all – and yay ACC! We’re stars. 