ACD Receives $1.9 Million Federal Grant for Open Educational Resources

The Alamo Colleges District has been awarded a $1.96 million grant for the Alamo Colleges Open Educational Resources (OER) Consortium Project through the U.S. Department of Education’s Open Textbooks Pilot Program for community colleges and universities. 

This year, Alamo Colleges is one of only five institutions to receive the grant funding.

The Alamo Colleges OER Consortium Project will provide support for the AlamoBOOKS+ initiative, an innovative, dual-investment program that provides Alamo Colleges students with universal access to instructional materials, including open educational resources.

“This grant funding will be pivotal for the Alamo Colleges to sustain the viability of AlamoBOOKS+ and create new and innovative professional development opportunities,” said Dr. Mike Flores, Alamo Colleges District Chancellor. “Open textbooks can decrease the costs for college students. Through this grant, we can provide cost-effective course materials for more students.”

San Antonio College will be leading the grant activities with participation from all five Alamo Colleges. 

Over three years, 75 faculty will complete professional development in OER and develop open content for high-enrollment courses, including five introductory courses in government, history, English, psychology and math. These high-enrollment courses are part of the core 15 credit hours for Career and Technical Education high-wage, high-demand pathways. 

The Open Textbooks program is estimated to serve approximately 10,000 students. The funding will also support the Alamo Colleges District in developing a repository to share OER and to support faculty collaboration across the five colleges.

For more information about the grant, visit ed.gov/programs/otp/index.html