Nashville resident Tracey Lee, Business and Technology Curriculum Chair at Motlow State Community College, will be a featured speaker at the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) Open Education Week 2022, which runs March 7-11. It is free to register for the event.

Open Education Week is a collaborative, community built, open forum aimed at raising awareness and highlighting innovative open education successes worldwide. Lee’s presentation, on March 8 at 10 a.m., will focus on how Motlow State incorporates Open Educational Resources (OER) materials in the Adult College Express (ACE) program to provide an Associate of Applied Science (A.A.S.) degree in Business Office and Entrepreneurship with no textbook costs. 

“OER materials are the newest trend across educational institutions,” explained Lee. “They remove financial barriers for students who might otherwise not take a class or finish their degree on time because of the cost of textbooks.”

Tennessee students enrolled in public institutions spent an average of $1,400 on course materials in the 2018-19 academic year. In Fall 2019, the average cost of materials for community college students was $119.18 per course. Last year, a Treasury Department report noted that Motlow State was recognized as a leader in controlling the cost of college attendance. Motlow has multiple OER initiatives in place, and also offers numerous other classes in other areas that offer OER course options.

Motlow developed OER materials to use as student learning resources instead of textbooks. These are available to students at no charge. The College has developed more than 50 OER courses, including history, biology, communication, English, math, music, sociology, and many more.

“I encourage people to attend and learn about what is happening across the state at different institutions, including best practices, challenges, and strategies, especially if interested in creating OER courses,” said Lee.

A full schedule of Open Education Week 2022 events can be found here. For more information about Motlow State, visit mscc.edu. •

{The Lynchburg Times is the only locally owned newspaper in Lynchburg and also the only woman-owned newspaper in Tennessee. We cover Metro Moore County government, Jack Daniel’s Distillery, Nearest Green Distillery, Tims Ford State Park, Motlow State Community College, Moore County High School, Moore County Middle School, Lynchburg Elementary, Raider Sports, plus regional and state news.}