How Teaching and Learning Services Can Help Institutions

If you work in higher education, you have likely attended a meeting or two in which you and your colleagues discuss strategies for recruiting and retaining students. It's a tough market; not only are there fewer college-aged students to attend America's institutions of higher education (IHEs), but potential students are increasingly debt-averse and keen to avoid the $30K-plus that people seeking four-year degrees owe on student loans on average. In fact, many young Americans are simply skipping college out of high school and entering the workforce.

Non-Traditional Students Seek Flexible Learning Opportunities

Of course, many of these Americans eventually attend IHEs as non-traditional students. Over the course of their employment (or lack thereof), they come to recognize a need for additional knowledge and skills. Some opt for continued education to gain promotions or salary increases in their established professions, while others enroll to change careers. Whatever their specific reasons, non-traditional students are generally more shrewd when it comes to college services and costs. They aren't as interested in student-life extras, such as clubs and sporting events, and don't want to be charged for them. They want to finish the degrees or certificates they start and are looking for institutions that offer genuine value and flexibility to that end.

Benefits of Online ZTC Programs that Utilize OERs and Library Resources

A highly effective way to deliver this value and flexibility is with fully online zero-textbook-cost (ZTC) degree programs. These programs provide the anywhere, anytime flexibility of online programs with the no-cost instructional materials commonly known as open educational resources (OERs). Through the use of OERs and curated library resources, educational costs can be reduced by 25 to 50 percent, depending on the type of course or degree program.

Increasing course affordability not only eases financial barriers to education but enables students to take more courses per term, improving the retention and graduation rates that benefit students and IHEs alike. OERs also address common challenges in traditional education. Unlike for-pay textbooks, OERs are accessible electronically on the first day of class. Gone is the phenomenon of students who drop courses because they didn't have the money to purchase the books or who performed poorly because they didn't have access to key educational materials.

Institutions Recognized for Cost-Savings and Customization

ZTC programs and courses are increasingly visible at IHEs. In states like California, community colleges are required by law to identify ZTC courses in course registration schedules so students can easily identify and enroll in less expensive courses. Bolstered by a series of statewide grants for ZTC program development, California community colleges expect to save students over a billion dollars in textbook costs since the program's inception in 2016. In California as well as other states, individual institutions are recognized for their work by keeping a running tally of their cost savings. The School of Professional Studies at the City University of New York provided a recent calculation: In Fall 2024, it estimated a cost savings to students approaching $4 million.

OERs continue to be in the news as academics develop an architecture for the Open Educational Language Model (OELM). In fact, advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) have been a boon for OERs because most OERs that are not already in the public domain are licensed for educators to repurpose and revise freely. Thus, faculty members can readily tailor OER textbooks to their courses and to the students who attend them. The ease of customization with generative AI applications, such as ChatGPT, comes with the promise of instructional content that genuinely reflects the experiences, contributions, and cultural identities of students. Microsoft has also demonstrated interest and has developed AI tools to leverage OERs along with Copilot+. Educators have long understood the importance of students seeing themselves represented in their learning materials. These innovations are not just about technology; they are about empowering institutions to create more equitable and inclusive learning experiences.