1 Project Details

Overview

SBCTC’s mission: We challenge, empower and embolden ourselves and our colleges to deliver equitable higher education through antiracist policies that ensure economic vitality across Washington.

It is in service to our mission and our agency’s vision that SBCTC embarked on this project to increase the capacity to support economically disadvantaged students seeking pathways into the workforce. Open educational resources (OER) by their very nature are centered on equity by unlocking access to quality educational resources for all students. For this reason, we’re fully employing the APA’s guidelines on bias-free language to guide all authoring processes. We firmly believe that authors must strive to use language that is free of bias and avoids perpetuating prejudicial beliefs or demeaning attitudes in their writing.

We are honored to be able to develop these textbooks in such a way that they are not only more affordable, but they also offer an authentic representation of our citizens in order to invite a sense of belonging for all.

• Funded by FIPSE FY22 Open Textbooks Pilot grant, SBCTC is developing three introductory open textbooks in the areas of Early Childhood Education, Hospitality, and Machining.
• Each textbook is developed by a faculty cohort of faculty members who will collectively author the textbooks.
• Textbook development is supported by experts in the areas of Instructional Design and Open Educational Resources/Copyright. They will provide overall guidance, assist development as needed, and conduct periodic reviews.
• The project begins in January 2023 and will be completed no later than June 2024. Duration of the project might be adjusted depending on the progress of the work.
• Open textbooks are to be developed in Google Docs and later published in the Pressbooks platform with a Creative Commons Attribution license which allows free public access and repurposing.
• SBCTC retains the copyright ownership of the final deliverables to ensure free public access to the works. Faculty authors will be clearly noted and credited in the publication.

Compensation

• Compensation is to be provided in the form of a direct/personal services contract. Payment will be made directly to each participant.
• Each participant is required to obtain approval from the Executive Ethics Board. As a part of the Ethics Board application, you will need to provide a statement that your college has approved the outside contract.

Invoicing

After signing your contract you will receive an invoice template and instructions from the SBCTC business office. The email subject heading will likely contain the words “EXECUTED Contract.” An Invoice Safekeeping Folder is available in Google Drive under the Resources section. You are encouraged to store your invoice template here for future reference.

Send your completed invoices (as an attachment) to eduContracts@sbctc.edu.

To complete your invoice, fill in the time period, name and address, date range, and quantity fields (see screenshot below) before sending to educontracts@sbctc.edu. Reach out to them if you need a copy of your invoice or have any questions about the process.

IMPORTANT: While the contract was drafted so you only need to invoice at the end of the calendar year and fiscal year, you may invoice as often as monthly as deliverables are completed, according to the following schedule:

• For work completed through Jun 30, 2023, invoice by Jul 8, 2023
• For work completed through December 31, 2023 invoice by January 31, 2024
• For work completed through June 30, 2024, invoice by July 8, 2024

Expected Tasks & Timeline

Once the cohorts are organized, participants will be required to commit to a series of tasks. Below is a high-level outline of the expected tasks and the timeline. An overview for each contract year is also available in the R2 All Deliverables spreadsheet.

Phase 1: Preparation (January & February of 2023)

• Faculty:
  • Complete/pass the required trainings including (but not limited to) topics on Instructional Design for Textbooks and project orientation. Each training will be offered online with a set of assignments.
  • In collaboration with your cohort complete the foundational elements of the textbook based on guidelines provided by SBCTC.
  • Attend monthly support team meetings facilitated by the cohort’s assigned lead. To make up for a missed cohort meeting:
    • Watch the meeting recording
    • Summarize the recording
    • Share your own updates relative to the meeting recording
    • Email this summary and your updates to the Project Manager and “cc” the ID within a week of the meeting

• Cohort Leads:
  • Organize and facilitate team meetings.
  • Attend monthly support team meetings facilitated by the project manager. Guidance on making up for missed meetings can be found in the project deliverables spreadsheet.
  • Maintain regular status reporting to the project manager through a provided tracking program.

Phase 2: Textbook Development & Revision (March 2023 to April 2024)

• Faculty
  • At minimum, attend monthly online cohort meetings to discuss chapter structure and content with other cohort members. Guidance on making up for missed meetings can be found in the project deliverables spreadsheet.
  • Develop/complete assigned chapters based on the format guidelines provided during training and in this manual.
  • Submit the content for two rounds of peer review and make revisions based on feedback received.
• Cohort Lead
  • Facilitate monthly online cohort meetings to guide and track authoring process.
  • Attend monthly support team meetings facilitated by the project manager. Guidance on making up for missed meetings can be found in the project deliverables spreadsheet.
  • Maintain regular status reporting to the project manager through a provided tracking program.

Phase 3 (Post-Project): Piloting & Evaluation (Fall 2024 & WInter 2025)

• Use the developed textbook as the primary course material for a class section during Fall 2024 and Winter 2025
• Participate in the process of collecting feedback. SBCTC may pull the data on student completion of the pilot courses and conduct a survey and/or interview to learn the user experience from both students and faculty members.

2023 Tasks and Schedules

2023 Progress Tracking and project timeline

See the 2023 Progress Tracking document to view the itemized deliverables for the 2023 contract year. This spreadsheet is to be updated by support staff only, but is viewable by anyone in the project. This is to keep the project transparent and everyone on the same page. A visual timeline of the project is also available.

Basecamp and Google Drive

Basecamp

• This project utilizes Basecamp for all primary communication including (but not limited to) announcements, questions, discussions, schedules, and meeting notes.
• Make sure to turn on Notifications to be notified by email when a new message or comment is posted. Alternatively, you may log into Basecamp weekly to communicate and stay informed. Instructions for notifications:

1. 1.  Click on your avatar in the upper-right corner. A small window will open and you will see a link to change your notification settings.
   2. Choose “Notify me about everything” under “What?” and “Send me email notifications” under “How?”
   3. Choose “Always! 24/7” under “When!” to receive notifications as they are posted. Alternately, you are welcome to set custom hours and days that Basecamp is allowed to notify you. To do so, choose “Work Can Wait!” under “When?” and set the preferred range of time for receiving notifications.

(Go to next page for a screenshot)

• Check the Message Board for all announcements from the management or support team. Make sure to check that you have notifications set in Basecamp so that you get an email alert when a new message is posted.
• Check Schedules for important dates such as meetings, deadlines, and training.
• Check Activity feed for a reverse chronological record of all activity by project members.
• Check Project Files for access to important documents including
  • 2023 Progress Tracking
  • Quick links to cohort-specific Google Drive files
  • Quick links to Google Drive project resource files
  • Basecamp user guide

Google Drive Folders

All participants have access to a Resources folder which stores general project resources, while each cohort has a designated Google folder for cohort-specific files. The folder structure might expand over time as more information is added. Below is the current layout:

• Open ProfTech|Cohort name

Meeting Notes | Images | Chapters