Framingham State Gets $2 Million Grant To Cut Textbook Costs

News release from Framingham State University.

FRAMINGHAM, MA — Framingham State University continues to be at the forefront of an initiative that aims to make costly college textbooks that fail to connect with diverse audiences a thing of the past.

The University is the lead recipient of a $1.98 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) to develop open source textbooks for high enrolling general education courses that are applicable across the Community College, State University, and UMass systems in Massachusetts. Framingham State has partnered with UMass-Lowell and Northern Essex Community College on the initiative, which is called the Career and AI Readiness while Remixing Open Textbooks through an Equity Lens (CA-ROTEL) project.

Open Educational Resource (OER) textbooks are made available online for free to anyone who would like to use them. The texts will be developed by faculty who teach the courses with a focus on making them culturally relevant to underserved populations.

“We believe that underrepresented students will achieve higher academic outcomes if they have access to free, culturally-relevant course materials that reflect their experiences,” says Millie Gonzalez, Dean of Framingham State’s Henry Whittemore Library and the lead author of the grant proposal.

The project is 100% funded by federal grant money. The new texts will also be developed with a focus on career readiness and generative AI technology.

“We want to prepare students for the future and AI is a gamechanger,” says Gonzalez. “Students need to understand how to use AI responsibly and ethically.”

The ultimate goals of the project are to:

• Eliminate textbook costs for students in high-enrollment general education and career and professional courses.
• Improve student learning outcomes, particularly for students from underserved communities.
• Create a sustainable model of OER development, publishing, and revision.

The initiative builds upon an ongoing effort led by Framingham State in partnership with five other Massachusetts public colleges to develop OER content. That project – supported by a separate $1.3 million grant from the DOE – has already produced nearly 30 OER textbooks being used at the partner colleges and beyond.

“The preliminary reports on the new OER textbooks that are being used in the classroom are very positive,” says Gonzalez. “Not only are students engaged with the materials, the DFW (Drop, Fail, Withdraw) rates are lower than comparable classrooms. We are also learning about a number of colleges beyond the partnership that are taking advantage of the free resources.”

The original ROTEL partnership includes Fitchburg State University, Holyoke Community College, Northern Essex Community College, Salem State University, and Springfield Technical Community College.