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The college, with the cooperation of faculty and students, made a move toward using OERs. The two-year project began in April 2012 and is supported by student technology fees. The goal was to embed OERs into the 10 classes with the highest enrollments and to save students $250,000. A year later, 39 sections of 19 individual classes-from biology, to English, to computer courses-use digital materials rather than traditional textbooks. Faculty isn't required to participate, but the number of teachers using OERs is growing. To date, the college has saved students $266,000.

Washtenaw Community College is the first community college in Michigan to put a textbook-free learning program in place. The Kaleidoscope Project uses open educational resources - basically online textbooks - to help make higher education more affordable. She says the project will be in place in one reading and one intermediate algebra class this fall, but the hope is that it can be expanded in the future.