![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/213\/2018\/07\/the-letter-Z.jpg\")
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How can we help our students engage in their learning, persist through the semester and into the next semester, and move along their chosen pathway?\u00a0 I hope that one part of the answer to that question is embedded in the recent work of our faculty, work that was supported by a grant from Achieving the Dream.\u00a0 The grant is known as the “OER Degree Initiative<\/a>“, and it concludes in December.\u00a0 As a result of the grant and the dedicated work of faculty across our transfer disciplines, I can announce that we are launching two Z-Degrees in the upcoming academic year.<\/p>\n What are Z-Degrees, you ask?\u00a0 They are degree pathways that can be completed entirely with Z-classes.\u00a0 What are Z-classes, you ask?\u00a0 They are classes where students pay zero costs for their textbooks.\u00a0\u00a0In most instances, Z-classes are taught with openly-licensed, freely available, high quality electronic course texts that students can access on the first day of class.\u00a0 These texts are known as open educational resources (OER).\u00a0 In other instances, Z-classes are taught with course materials that are in the public domain and\/or available through JSTOR or EBSCO or other ACC Library Services databases.<\/p>\n The launch of two Z-Degree pathways is wholly the result of faculty work.\u00a0 It is our faculty who crafted course materials for Z-classes.\u00a0 It is our faculty who shared their course materials with their colleagues.\u00a0 It is our faculty who recognized the barriers that many students face when confronted with purchasing textbooks and chose to respond in an active way by developing Z-classes.\u00a0 It is our faculty who recognized that some students who could otherwise succeed in their classes were likely to fail because they were starting the semester without the required textbook, and often could not afford the book at any point in the semester.\u00a0 Thanks to our faculty, we are offering students opportunities to learn with quality course materials for which students do not have to pay.<\/p>\n Our two Z-Degree pathways are available in the Associate of Science in General Studies in Science<\/a> (I know – it’s an awkward title), and the Associate of Arts in General Studies in Arts<\/a> (another awkward title).\u00a0 And while not all General Studies students will precisely follow these Z-Degree pathways, many of our transfer students will benefit from the availability of core curriculum Z-classes<\/a> that help them afford college.<\/p>\n If you’re wondering about the quality, rigor, or impact of zero-cost course materials, a recent\u00a0article<\/a> in Inside Higher Ed <\/em>tells the encouraging story of the University of Georgia.\u00a0 The report can be found\u00a0here, <\/a>the authors are Colvard, Watson, & Park, and the article was published in International Journal of Teaching & Learning in Higher Education.<\/em><\/p>\n Let’s hear it for the letter Z!<\/p>\n How can we help our students engage in their learning, persist through the semester and into the next semester, and move along their chosen pathway?\u00a0 I hope that one part of the answer to that question is embedded in the recent work of our faculty, work that was supported by a grant from Achieving the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":375,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-updates"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/375"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Picture credit:\u00a0By Acf [GFDL (http:\/\/www.gnu.org\/copyleft\/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons. <\/em><\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"