What+this+project+is.


 * This project __is__ about** designing 81 high enrollment, important general education, and pre-college courses for face-to-face, hybrid and/or online delivery, to improve course completion rates, lower textbook costs for students, provide new resources for faculty to consider using in their courses, and for our college system to fully engage the global open educational resources discussion.

>>
 * **__Is__** about “What is best for Students”
 * These 80 courses (#81 will be a new course) constitute __411,133 annual enrollments__ (2008-2009) across the 34 colleges.
 * Multiply that many enrollments by an estimate of an average of $127 in textbook costs per course ... and estimate our students are spending over $52.2M / year on textbooks for these 80 courses.
 * Full time tuition in our system is roughly $3000. Textbooks for a full time student are roughly $1000.


 * **__Is__** about faculty having access to and being enabled to employ a global buffet of high quality, current, pedagogically sound educational content… to create and share world class learning materials.


 * __**Is**__ a lot like the WashingtonOnline system-owned shared courses. Colleges developed those courses and gave them to the system. Colleges could choose to use them and how to use them, and they were helpful in expanding access for our students.


 * Who Will Benefit from these Courses?**


 * Important:** adoptions of the courses (in whole or in part) is __not__ mandated and is completely up to colleges and individual faculty members.
 * Students will engage up-to-date, effective courses and learning activities.
 * Students will see significant reductions in their textbook costs.
 * Faculty will benefit from the support and expertise of colleagues in their course design processes.
 * Faculty will enhance their personal capability to identify, mobilize and extend knowledge globally.