Federal Grant Supports Partnership with Other Institutions to Create Online Course Materials

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UMass Lowell is a partner institution in a program to develop free, online, culturally responsive and interactive course materials for students.

11/08/2024

UMass Lowell, together with colleges and universities across the state, is developing free, online textbooks that are more culturally inclusive, interactive and career focused to better engage students, particularly those from underserved populations. 

The project is funded by a nearly $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The initiative aims to produce open-source textbooks used in popular, freshmen and sophomore-level courses that lay the foundation for undergraduate success for students enrolled in any of the community college, state university and UMass system institutions across the Commonwealth. Framingham State University is leading the initiative with UMass Lowell and Northern Essex Community College.

Transforming education to meet the needs of our students and foster their success is a hallmark of UMass Lowell,  said Julie Nash, senior vice provost for academic affairs.  The online materials developed by our faculty through this project will reduce the need for traditional textbooks, which will provide a cost savings to our students; ease the transition into college, particularly for transfer students; and streamline the classroom experience. 

The online texts, which will incorporate interactive content driven by artificial intelligence, will be developed by faculty at the partner institutions. The initiative, called the Career and AI Readiness while Remixing Open Textbooks through an Equity Lens (CA-ROTEL) project, hopes to:

  • Eliminate traditional print textbook costs for students enrolled in popular general education, career focused and professional courses 
  • Improve student learning outcomes, particularly for students from underserved communities 
  • Create a sustainable model to develop, publish and revise free educational resources 

The initiative augments work already underway at UMass Lowell to develop free, online course materials, known as open educational resources, according to Donna Mellen, director of academic technology, who is leading the project at UMass Lowell. Mellen serves as the UMass Lowell representative on the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education s Open Educational Resources Advisory Council; she provides consulting, workshops, and project leadership to help faculty use technology to enhance their teaching methods.

UMass Lowell has a robust program for creating, using, and sharing free open educational resources as replacements for required commercial textbooks. This new grant will allow us to focus on high enrollment courses and to work with our peers across institutions to share best practices as we develop impactful course materials that draw on our students  experience with AI technology and impart culturally responsive materials that can help them build their professional lives after graduation. 

Media Contacts: 
Emily-GowdeyBackus@uml.edu,director of media relations
Nancy_Cicco@uml.edu, assistant director of media relations


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