Authors Open Oregon Educational Resources
License CC-BY-4.0
Columbia Gorge Community College
OER Report Fall 2019
Executive Summary
This report is a snapshot of Columbia Gorge Community College’s participation in the statewide
Open Educational Resources (OER) program. Please contact hofera@linnbenton.edu to
provide updates about your campus.
Institutional summary:
● Columbia Gorge Community College OER point person(s): Stephen Shwiff
● Known adoptions at Columbia Gorge Community College:
http://openoregon.org/resources/?keyword=gorge
● Statewide grant funding awarded to Columbia Gorge Community College since 2015,
out of ~$1.1M offered: $56,287.50, or 4.88% of available funding
● OER grants at Columbia Gorge Community College since 2015 have saved students an
estimated $280,850.20, or $4.99 per program dollar spent.
● Estimated student savings represented by the no-cost/low-cost schedule designation at
Columbia Gorge Community College from 2017-19, out of a statewide aggregated
estimate of ~$34M: $630,800.00
Looking ahead in 2019-21:
● Columbia Gorge Community College received 2019 funding for 6 grant projects, for a
total award of $13945
● Statewide funding is available for open textbook review workshops and other
professional development opportunities.
● Open Oregon Educational Resources offers support for compliance with legislative
requirements to label no-cost/low-cost courses in the schedule and for textbook
affordability strategic planning.
Columbia Gorge Community College OER Report Fall 2019 by Open Oregon Educational Resources is
licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Table of Contents
Executive Summary
Table of Contents
Estimated student savings represented by No-cost/Low-cost Designation 2017-19
Open Textbook Review Workshops
Grants Overview
HB 2871 Grants
2015 Grants
2016-17 Grant Cohort and 2017 Winter/Spring Adopt Grants
2018 Grant Cohort
Estimated student savings represented by
No-cost/Low-cost Designation 2017-19
HB 2871, passed in 2015, requires each of Oregon’s public colleges and universities to
designate courses with no-cost and low-cost course materials in the schedule. HB 2213, passed
in 2019, further requires that textbook affordability plans at each institution include steps to
market the no-cost/low-cost designation to students.
Statewide, the no-cost/low-cost designation represented a huge savings to Oregon students:
● Courses with the no-cost and low-cost designation in the schedule at 19 reporting
institutions are estimated to have saved over 375,000 students (by headcount) in 21,000
course sections approximately $34 million in two academic years.
● At the reporting institutions, approximately 12% of all courses were designated no-cost
or low-cost.
● More information: Estimated 2017-19 Student Savings in No-Cost/Low-Cost Courses
At Columbia Gorge Community College, courses with the no-cost and low-cost designation in
the schedule:
● Represent estimated savings of $630,800.00 by 7,271 students in the 2017-19
biennium.
● In the 2017-19 biennium, Columbia Gorge Community College counted 546 sections
labeled with the no-cost/low-cost designation in the course schedule, or 66.26% of
sections offered.
How was this savings estimate calculated?
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● For the statewide savings estimate, each college and university reports savings data
using the method that works best for their own local campus environment. Each
institution shows their work by sharing their method so that the aggregated estimate can
be understood as a sum of differentiated components. More information on this
approach to OER savings estimates can be found in the post Support for a Local
Approach to Statewide OER Data Collection.
● Because we do not use a consistent method for calculating savings, we are not able to
make meaningful comparisons or rank institutional savings results.
● Columbia Gorge Community College was one of Oregon’s earliest adopters of a
schedule designation. Since 2011, in 627 sections, 9,163 students have saved an
estimated $916,300. CGCC uses the $100 multiplier to estimate savings. No-cost/low
cost sections offered that didn’t fill were counted towards designated sections, though
they didn’t result in student savings. The 2018 Fall, Fourth Week Headcount Enrollment
for Columbia Gorge Community College was 1,492.
Open Textbook Review Workshops
Open Oregon Educational Resources has offered open textbook review workshops since joining
the Open Textbook Network (OTN) on behalf of Oregon’s 17 community colleges in 2015;
membership was extended to the 7 universities as well beginning in 2017. The OTN model has
two parts: a faculty workshop presenting open textbooks as a way to solve the problem of high
textbook prices, followed by the opportunity for faculty to earn a $200 stipend to write a review
of a book in the Open Textbook Library. The OTN finds that faculty who write an in-depth review
of an open textbook are much more likely to adopt the book in their classes.
● The OER Review Workshop program has cumulatively resulted in an estimated
$2,383,200 in student savings since 2015, representing $19.89 in student savings per
program dollar spent.
● This savings estimate may underreport the impact of the program because Oregon
beta-tested a new data collection tool; as a result the campaign to request adoption and
enrollment data from faculty was not as effective as in past years.
● Read full report
Columbia Gorge Community College faculty have received $1,932.00 in stipends, or 1.61% of
the review stipend funding spent since 2015.
● The OER Review Workshop stipends at Columbia Gorge Community College resulted in
an estimated student savings of $14,800.00 in four years.
● This savings represents $7.66 in student savings per program dollar spent.
● In terms of per-student savings, Columbia Gorge Community College ranks #15 among
the 20 colleges and universities that participated in the OER Review Workshop program.
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Grants Overview
Oregon has offered four statewide grant programs since 2015. Two of these programs were
available to faculty at both colleges and universities, while two were available only to faculty at
the colleges because of funding restrictions. In aggregate, statewide spending on OER grants
has saved students an estimated total of $7,440,911.37, representing $6.45 in student savings
per program dollar spent. The table below summarizes the impact of statewide OER grant
spending to date.
HB 2871 2015 Grants 2016-17 Grant 2018 Grant Total
Grants Cohort and Cohort
2017
Winter/Spring
Adopt Grants
Eligibility Colleges & Colleges Colleges Colleges & Colleges &
Universities Universities Universities
Available $322,000.00 $52,098.00 $280,154.70 $499,084.48 $1,153,337.18
Funding
Statewide $1,544,200.60 $477,409.24 $4,181,462.51 $1,237,839.02 $7,440,911.37
Estimated
Student
Savings
Statewide $4.80 $9.16 $14.93 $2.48 $6.45
Estimated
Student
Savings per $1
spent
Columbia $3,500.00 $26,650.00 $26,137.50 $56,287.50
Gorge
Community
College Award
% of Eligible 6.72% 9.51% 5.24% 4.88%
Funding
Received by
Columbia
Gorge
Community
College
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Estimated $22,380.00 $235,655.00 $22,815.20 $280,850.20
Student
Savings at
Columbia
Gorge
Community
College
Estimated $6.39 $8.84 $0.87 $4.99
Student
Savings at
Columbia
Gorge
Community
College per $1
spent
The pie chart below shows eligible grant award spending per institution. The bar graph below
shows the ratio of grant award spending compared to 2018 Fall, Fourth Week Headcount
Enrollment.1 The purpose of the bar graph is to show whether grant awards are proportional to
enrollment (a ratio of 1 is proportional; a ratio of greater than 1 means that grant spending is
higher than would be expected based on enrollment; a ratio of less than 1 means that grant
spending is less than would be expected based on enrollment).
1
Data sources: Oregon Community College Fall, Fourth Week Headcount Enrollment, 2012-2018 ;
Oregon Public University NONRESIDENT Fall 4th Week Headcount Enrollment Including Extended
Enrollment, 2001-2018; Oregon Public University Resident Fall 4th Week Headcount Enrollment Including
Extended Enrollment, 2001-2018
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HB 2871 Grants
The HB 2871 Grant Program was administered by the HECC rather than by Open Oregon
Educational Resources.
● The HB 2871 grant program saved 10,041 students an estimated total of $1,544,200.60
in four years, representing $4.80 in student savings per program dollar spent.
● Read full report
Columbia Gorge Community College did not participate in this grant program.
2015 Grants
Funding for the 2015 statewide OER grant pilot program was provided by the Community
College and Workforce Development office of the Higher Education Coordinating Commission
on the recommendation of the Oregon Community College Distance Learning Association. This
grant pilot is a terrific example of how student savings compound over time as instructors and
institutions continue to use OER. Measurable student savings has increased sixfold in just three
years.
● The 2015 pilot grants saved 5,089 students an estimated total of $477,409.24 in four
years, representing $9.64 in student savings for every program dollar spent.
● Read full report
Columbia Gorge Community College was awarded $3,500.00, or 6.72% of the available
funding.
● The 2015 pilot grant funding at Columbia Gorge Community College resulted in an
estimated student savings of $22,380.00 in four years, representing $6.39 in student
savings per program dollar spent.
● In terms of per-student savings, Columbia Gorge Community College ranks #5 among
the 6 colleges and universities that participated in this grant program.
2016-17 Grant Cohort and 2017 Winter/Spring Adopt Grants
Funding for the statewide OER grant program was provided by the Community College and
Workforce Development office of the Higher Education Coordinating Commission on the
recommendation of the Oregon Community College Distance Learning Association. The initial
round of grant funding was augmented to support additional projects to adopt OER as-is in
Winter and Spring 2017.
● The 2016-17 grant cohort saved 30,758 students an estimated total of $4,181,462.51 in
three years, representing $14.93 in student savings for every program dollar spent.
● Read full report
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Columbia Gorge Community College was awarded $26,650.00, or 9.51% of the available
funding.
● The 2016-17 grant funding at Columbia Gorge Community College resulted in an
estimated student savings of $235,655.00 in three years, representing $8.84 in student
savings per program dollar spent.
● In terms of per-student savings, Columbia Gorge Community College ranks #8 among
the 12 colleges and universities that participated in this grant program.
2018 Grant Cohort
The 2018-19 grant program began with 53 projects funded by HB 2729 and by the Community
College and Workforce Development office of the Higher Education Coordinating Commission
on the recommendation of the Oregon Community College Distance Learning Association. The
CCWD funded 15 additional projects in Fall 2018 to support the Oregon Transfer Compass
program legislated by HB 2998.
● The 68 OER grant projects in the 2018-19 cohort represent 22 institutions and saved
nearly 8,000 Oregon students an estimated $1.2 million in the pilot year of the program,
approximately $2.50 in student savings for each $1 of grant money spent.
● Read full report
Columbia Gorge Community College was awarded $26,137.50, or 5.24% of the available
funding.
● The 2018-19 grant funding at Columbia Gorge Community College resulted in an
estimated student savings of $22,815.20 in the pilot year of the program, representing
$0.87 in student savings per program dollar spent.
● In terms of per-student savings, Columbia Gorge Community College ranks #14 among
the 20 colleges and universities that participated in this grant program.
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