JoAnna Schilling, vice president of Academic Affairs, joined faculty senate to talk about Lumen Learning and the new low-cost textbook initiative.

Schilling revealed the biggest issue about having open educational resources is having the right content faculty members are satisfied with.

Lumen Learning is a program that provides courseware that replaces traditional textbooks in high enrollment courses.

“Faculty from all over the country developed the programs, even some Cerritos College faculty created content,” Schilling said.

Cerritos College has officially partnered with Lumen to give faculty the option to have this type of flexible material that will help students save money.

By eliminating textbooks, it saves students the hassle of spending hundreds of dollars, while getting the material they need to learn.

There are two types of courses, Candela Open Courses and Waymaker Personalized Courseware.

Candela is only a $5 additional fee students will have to pay when they enroll in a class.

The courses include complete content resources that include: text, video and interactive activities.

A major highlight is the fact that faculty would be able to edit the material to its liking.

Waymaker includes all of the benefits Candela has and a personalized learning experience for $25.

At $100 a textbook, students have saved well over half a million dollars thanks to OER.

There was some concern by a few members of the senate, as they felt that having to edit content they may not need, it will create more work that they don’t have any extra time for.

Faculty will have the opportunity to see if Lumen Learning is right for them at the end of January when Lumen visits Cerritos.

The overall goal is to provide materials for faculty, while saving students money.

Student Success and Support Program representatives Armando Soto, Traci Ukita and Renee DeLong Chomiak talked about the purpose of 3SP and brought updates to the senate.

They reminded everyone that 3SP funds pay for enrollment, orientation and other student success activities.

Last year, 3SP received about $2 million in funding and expect to get $3.4 million this year.

“The funding has brought in four counselors last year and the committee is expecting two more counselors to come in and help spread student success,” Chomiak said.

The conversation about the yearly student awards for academic success came to no conclusion as there was still concern that eliminating certain categories would take away from the students and ceremony.