Through a grant of up to $600,000 in support of Massachusetts Department of Higher Education’s Digital Textbooks and Material Pilot, seven institutions will have access to Lumen’s digital learning materials at no cost through June 30th, including:

  • Bunker Hill Community College
  • Northern Essex Community College
  • Roxbury Community College
  • Springfield Technical Community College
  • Fitchburg State University
  • Framingham State University
  • Salem State University

The cost of courseware represents a very real obstacle for many students. This grant enables faculty at these institutions to select course materials for adoption immediately, whether for a complete course as a primary learning source or specific modules that can serve as supplemental learning materials to provide extra practice in areas critical to students’ success. This can include areas where students often struggle the most, like grammar and writing skills, or building study skills and life skills. Lumen’s course catalog is available here: lumenlearning.com/courses

For faculty who teach classes that have already started this semester, this grant offers a chance to experiment with the materials before deciding to use them in subsequent semesters.

“Many faculty choose open textbooks in order to improve textbook affordability, but do so at the cost of resources that are critical for teaching and learning – things like automatically graded practice with immediate feedback for students and dashboards that help faculty identify struggling students in real-time,” said Dr. David Wiley, Chief Academic Officer and co-founder of Lumen Learning. “With Lumen’s courseware, faculty can choose OER that are integrated with all the additional resources they need to teach successfully so their students can learn successfully.”

“This program is a great opportunity and increases the choices of teaching & learning materials for faculty and students at the selected institutions. We hope it encourages faculty to try teaching and learning materials that increase student affordability, provide them day-one access, and can meet the faculty member’s disciplinary and course-specific needs without worrying about the cost to students,” says Robert Awkward, Assistant Commissioner for Academic Effectiveness
Massachusetts Department of Higher Education.

For faculty and staff who are interested in learning more about this opportunity, please contact the Lumen team at lumen-mass@lumenlearning.com or visit https://info.lumenlearning.com/digital-pilot-ma