Haverhill, MA (October 22, 2024) – Northern Essex Community College continues to be at the forefront of reducing barriers for students through developing free course materials and textbooks, known as Open Educational Resources (OER).

Framingham State University is the lead recipient of a new, $1.98 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) to develop open-source textbooks for high-enrolling general education courses that are applicable across the Community College, State University, and UMass systems in Massachusetts. Framingham State has partnered with UMass-Lowell and NECC on the initiative, which is called the Career and AI Readiness while Remixing Open Textbooks through an Equity Lens (CA-ROTEL) project.

NECC Professor Lisette Espinoza’s OER textbook published through the ROTEL project

“This grant empowers faculty to create and customize learning materials that truly resonate with their students’ needs. By developing OER that incorporates AI and career readiness components, professors can adapt their teaching materials, collaborate across institutions, and ensure their curriculum stays current with rapidly evolving workplace demands,” says Sue Tashjian, NECC’s coordinator of instructional technology and leader of NECC’s AI Task Force. Tashjian also serves as co-chair of the Massachusetts OER Advisory Council.

“Through initiatives like this, faculty can craft well-focused teaching materials while students benefit from culturally relevant, career-focused content that is freely available for them to access,” underscores NECC Provost Paul Beaudin.

OER textbooks are available online for free to anyone who would like to use them. The texts will be developed by faculty who teach the courses with a focus on making them culturally relevant to underserved populations.

“Community college students need barrier-free access to course materials that reflect both their lived experiences and the technological realities of their future careers,” continues Tashjian.

NECC President Lane Glenn emphasizes the timeliness of this new effort in preparing students for in-demand jobs across the Commonwealth.

“By embedding AI competency and career readiness into our OER, we are not just reducing costs – we are transforming how students prepare for success in an AI-driven future,” says Glenn.

The ultimate goals of the project are to:

• Eliminate textbook costs for students in high-enrollment general education and career and professional courses.
• Improve student learning outcomes, particularly for students from underserved communities.
• Create a sustainable model of OER development, publishing, and revision.

The project is 100% funded by federal grant money. The initiative builds upon an ongoing effort led by Framingham State in partnership with five other Massachusetts public colleges to develop OER content. That project – supported by a separate $1.3 million grant from the DOE – has already produced nearly 30 OER textbooks being used at the partner colleges and beyond.

NECC’s first open textbook, The Whole Child: Development in the Early Years

The original ROTEL partnership includes Fitchburg State University, Holyoke Community College, Northern Essex Community College, Salem State University, and Springfield Technical Community College.

Faculty from around the state gathered at NECC last spring to celebrate the success of the original ROTEL partnerships and share the materials they developed. NECC faculty developed five OER through that project.

Tashjian estimates the use of free and low-cost course materials has saved more than 20,000 students $10 million on textbooks over the last ten years. NECC currently offers 90 courses that use OER. Students can search specifically for these classes in the course search tool and select the Free/Low-Cost Books icon. For more information about free and low-cost textbooks or OER, please contact Sue Tashjian at 978-556-3686 or stashjian@necc.mass.edu.