As the cost of a college education remains prohibitively
high for many people, university and college leaders met at a recent White
House invitation-only event to discuss how they are using so-called “open
educational resources” (OER) programs to lessen the financial impact on
students. The White House’s recent Open Education Symposium included Salt Lake
Community College’s Jason Pickavance, director of educational initiatives and a
champion at SLCC of using OER-based courses for a variety of subjects.
Jason Pickavance
“The Salt Lake
Community College OER Initiative has saved students over $750,000 since we
started tracking savings in the summer 2014 semester,” said Pickavance. “This
fall semester we saved students about $300,000 with about 150 OER sections.
We’re offering OER-based courses in math, biology, business, education,
English, history, sociology and psychology. Our goal is to save SLCC students
at least $3 million over the next three years. We’re on track to complete that
goal. In the fall of 2016, we should have 300-400 open sections, at least
doubling this year’s total.”
During the White House symposium, school leaders, technology
tool providers, state leaders and other stakeholders met with senior
administration officials to “demonstrate the positive impact that openly
licensed educational resources can have on teaching and student learning.”
Earlier this year the Utah System of Higher Education (USHE) gave the first
biennial Alan E. Hall Innovation for Undergraduate Student Success Award to
Pickavance and Suzanne Mozdy, associate dean of SLCC’s Math Department. USHE
recognized the pair for their efforts with SLCC’s own OER initiative to make
affordable online resources more available for students.
