Bunker Hill Community College Announces New College Access Initiative
Friday, August 12, 2016
Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) has announced participation in the Open Education Resource Degree Initiative (OER), sponsored by national community college reform network Achieving the Dream (ATD). The College has been awarded a $100,000 grant to support the OER initiative, which aims to remove financial roadblocks that can derail student progress toward degree completion.
According to Achieving the Dream, the OER Degree Initiative seeks to boost college access and completion, particularly for underserved students, by engaging faculty in the redesign of courses and degree programs through the replacement of proprietary textbooks with open education resources. Over the next three years, the Open Education Resource Degree Initiative will lay the groundwork for nationwide adoption of OER degrees.
BHCC is the only college in Massachusetts selected to participate in the initiative, which includes 38 community colleges across 13 states. For this initial phase, there are four identified two-year degree programs for which all required materials are available: business administration, general education, natural or general science and social sciences. An important phase of this initiative will involve reanalyzing the degree programs, and re-working the curriculum to center around available open education resource course materials.
“The work required on our part to realign curriculum with the OER materials will positively impact our students,” says BHCC President Pam Eddinger. “This initiative is perfectly aligned with Bunker Hill Community College’s commitment to providing quality, affordable education to our students.”
With the average annual cost of textbooks at $1,300 for a full time college student, textbook costs have become an obstacle for degree completion for many students. BHCC’s participation in the OER initiative is predicted to reduce the financial burden of students, contributing to better grades, increased retention rates and faster degree completion for students.
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About Bunker Hill Community College
With more than 50 years of academic excellence, Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) is Massachusetts' largest community college, annually welcoming a diverse community of around 16,000 students. With campuses in Charlestown and Chelsea, BHCC extends its reach across several locations in Greater Boston. The College offers associate degrees and certificates, early college and dual enrollment, community education, corporate training, and industry-specific training programs. BHCC is celebrated for its diversity, boasting a student body where 65% identify as people of color and more than half are women. The College also embraces a global perspective, with over 600 international students representing 90 countries and conversing in more than 65 languages. Our commitment to diversity is further reflected in BHCC's designation as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) and an Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPISI).