Hillsborough Community College (HCC) in February officially launched a pioneering Artificial Intelligence (AI) Open Educational Resources (OER) Creation program, which pairs subject matter expertise with AI to rapidly produce open textbooks in under six months. Faculty are provided with access to ChatGPT Team, an HCC Pressbooks account, HTML5 Package (H5P), which can be used to create interactive exercises for students, support staff, as well as a stipend for their efforts.

As Florida’s leader in the Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) Initiative, HCC has offered more than 5,400 ZTC sections since 2022 and saved students more than $7.5 million. Currently, more than 20% of course sections at HCC are designated as ZTC.

Having also produced multiple open textbooks with the state’s only self-hosted Pressbooks system, HCC was well-positioned to launch the AI OER Creation program pilot in September 2024.

The pilot launched with two open textbook projects: “Introduction to FinTech” and “International Relations: Exploring Security Through Global Disasters and Film.” These textbooks were written by instructors Mohammed (Mo) Kotaiche, Eric Fiske and Deborah Barr, respectively. OER copyediting, accessibility support and project leadership were provided by Joshua Hill, Ilene Frank and Amy Albaugh from the HCC Center for Innovative Teaching and Technology, as well as the college’s library.

The first draft of the FinTech open textbook was finished Jan. 29, 2025, taking only 84 days to produce.

“After a nationwide search for an appropriate textbook on FinTech didn’t result in the right fit, we decided to author and publish one. We are the first to publish an introductory textbook suitable for freshmen and junior-level college students,” said Mo Kotaiche, financial technology instructor.

“When I think about the use of AI and OER in the classroom, I think of it as enlisting a highly enthusiastic co-author who is ready to help transform your expertise into an accessible, student-friendly OER,” political science instructor Eric Fiske said. “Our OER courses have resulted in 11% lower drop, fail, withdrawal (DFW) rates—it’s a win-win situation for us and the students.”

“AI is transforming the way we teach and engage with students in higher education,” said sociology instructor Deborah Barr. “I like to think of it as an eager assistant ready to support with personalized learning tools that allow me to focus on meaningful interactions and critical thinking in an effort to create a more dynamic classroom.”

The ZTC initiative offers OER materials and a zero-cost on textbooks in courses for students. These educational materials can be a variety of open-textbooks, electronic journals and related course materials. Students utilize these resources at no cost.

This article originally appeared here.