panOpen Wins Z-Degree Award with the Houston Community College System
Summary
panOpen, a next-generation courseware platform for institutional adoption of Open Educational Resources, announced today that it was chosen by the Houston Community College System to support its Z-Degree, or zero-cost, textbook program. The three-year award, which was won through an RFP process, helps ensure that thousands of HCC students will have day-one access to interactive OER-based courseware for their core Associate’s degree curriculum. In reference to that agreement, Jerome Drain, Associate Vice Chancellor, Instructional Services, noted: “Lowering the cost of educational materials and improving equity of access should not mean that faculty need to compromise on the quality of the content or the tools and support for it. “The shift from physical to digital learning resources has given faculty and students more choice than ever and there is no single content strategy that covers them all,” noted Dr. Nathan Smith, Professor of Philosophy, and System-wide Coordinator for OER. panOpen exists to allow faculty to balance precisely these factors by delivering a rich set of tools and direct human support for the adoption of OER.” ABOUT HCC: Houston Community College System is an open-admission, public institution of higher education offering a high-quality, affordable education for academic advancement, workforce training, career development, and lifelong learning to prepare individuals in our diverse communities for life and work in a global and technological society.