“Opening Gateways to Completion: Open Digital Pedagogies for Student Success in STEM” is a 5-year, $3.2 million grant funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions program (Title V). The goal is to support student success in mathematics courses that serve as gateways to STEM disciplines, courses that often act as barriers to progress and completion in these disciplines. The project, awarded jointly to the New York City College of Technology (lead) and the Borough of Manhattan Community College (partner) in 2015, brings the two institutions together in a cross-campus collaboration that will introduce open-source digital technologies, open educational resources, and active learning pedagogies into the sequence of high-enrollment mathematics courses required for STEM disciplines at each college.

The project consists of two major interrelated activities and a number of additional complementary projects.

Major activities:

• Design and develop a comprehensive suite of open educational resources (OERs) for each course, consisting of WeBWorK assignments, videos, and supporting materials
• Conduct a series of intensive year-long faculty development seminars that will enable full-time and adjunct faculty at each campus to implement these OERs successfully in their classes, introducing them not only to the technologies but also to engaging pedagogical strategies that have been proven effective with high-need students such as ours.

Additional projects:

• WeBWorK/OpenLab integration (City Tech)
• OER Research Assistant Program (City Tech)
• Math Lab upgrades and tutoring (BMCC)

Resources and Links:

• Opening Gateways Handout. Produced for the Fall 2017 Title V New Project Director’s Conference.
• Sample Fellows Agreement/Contract
• STEM Application Template