Bridge to Success

About the Project

Acquiring the skills to learn is critical, yet can often be a barrier to student success. In addition, the core area of mathematics is key to many further areas of study. Bridge to Success offers open, free content to cross the barrier to gaining the skills to learn, providing "bridging" content in mathematics and learning to learn. The bridging approach has been shown to increase learner capability and confidence, encourage participation, and contribute to the progression of a certificate or degree completion.

Recognition, Awards, Presentations and Publications

Distance Learning Program of the Year (2011) - Maryland Distance Learning Association
Community College Digital Application Award (2012) - Center for Digital Education 2012 Digital Education Achievement Awards
Community College Website (2012) - Honorable Mention - Center for Digital Education 2012 Digital Education Achievement Awards
Most Interactive Resource (2012) - People’s Choice Award Nominee - Education-Portal.com
Presentation on Bridge to Success at the Open Courseware Consortium Global meeting in April 2012 and a paper has been published for this: Law, P., McAndrew, P., Law, A., Warner, K., Runyon, J., Lascu, D. and Muramatsu, B. (2012) A Bridge to Success. In Proceedings of OCWC 2012: Innovation and Impact - Openly Collaborating to Enhance Education. Cambridge, UK.
(can you create a pdf of paper I will send?)
The following papers were accepted for the OpenEd 2012 Conference:
- Pitt R. E. and Coughlan T. (2012) Scaling Up a Bridge to Success! Diverse audiences and unexpected outcomes in cross-institutional OER practice.
- Law, P (2012) The OER Hub: making the best of your OER Project.
“Bridge to Success Project: Helping Students Succeed” presented at the Student Success Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference in April 2012, College of Southern Maryland.
“Bridge to Success: Creating Student Success” presented at the 4th Annual National Conference on Acceleration in Developmental Education in June 2012, Baltimore, Maryland.
“Bridge to Success: Learning to Learn” presented at the 11th Maryland Distance Learning Association Spring Conference, March 2012.
“Bridging Student Success and Retention through Open Educational Learning Tools: The Bridge to Success Project” presented at the 11th Maryland Distance Learning Association Spring Conference, March 2012.
“Adopting Bridge to Success OERs for your Educational Programs: The Bridge to Success Project” presented during Open Education Week, March, 2012 - OCWConsortium
“The Bridge to Success Project: Promoting the Dissemination and Adoption of OERs” presented at the American Association of Community Colleges Annual Conference, April 2012, http://www.aacc.nche.edu/newsevents/Events/convention2/Pages/default.aspx.
Press release posted in Community College Week on April 23, 2012. http://ccweekblog.wordpress.com/editors-blog/#comment-3707
An article for ITC Newsletter submitted by D. Lascu and was published in December 2011 http://www.itcnetwork.org/resources/itc-newsletter.html
An article published by EDUCAUSE Quarterly, Lascu, D. (2012) “Open Educational Resources,” Volume 34, Number 4, 2011 Edition. http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/open-educational-resources-bridge-success-project
eLearning Community presentation at OU by P.Law, P. McAndrew, R. Pitt, and T. Coughlan on December 7, 2011. http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/5946
Pre-conference workshop and presentation was given at the Instructional Technology Council annual e-learning conference in Long Beach, CA (Feb 18 - 21, 2012). See http://www.itcnetwork.org/elearning-conference.html. B. Muramatsu and J. Runyon.
Educause Learning Initiative conference in Austin, TX (Feb 13 - 15, 2012); see http://www.educause.edu/ELI2012. P. McAndrew, B. Muramatsu, and J. Runyon.
Webinar and presentation at the OU to the eLearning Community, 7th Dec 2011 on the Bridge to Success and related OER projects at the OU (presenters Patrick McAndrew, Patrina Law, Beck Pitt and Tim Coughlan) http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/5946.

Long-Term Impact of the Bridge to Success Project

Reduce the need for remediation in developmental math.
Reduce remediation costs.
Accelerate time to completion of degree.
Open pathways to the acquisition of new skills.
Improve student success in gatekeeper courses.
Develop math subject-matter competencies.
Develop study skills.
Develop confidence for further study.
Expand range, depth and access to college readiness content.
Ensure all materials are open, discoverable and standards based.
Increase awareness and impact of OER design to support teaching and learning.
Promote adaptation or adoption of best practices to enhance success and achievement in gatekeeper courses.
Support collaborative adaption of OER by enhancing OU's OpenLearn and LabSpace.
Explore the effectiveness of adding a social network dimension to the study of open content.

Project Information and Pilot Resources

Institutional Partners and Acknowledgments

Bridge to Success is made possible through a Next Generation Learning Challenge grant awarded to Anne Arundel Community College, the Open University (UK), University of Maryland University College (UMUC) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). NGLC is led by EDUCAUSE in partnership with The League for Innovation in the Community College, the International Association of K-12 Online Learning and the Council of Chief State School Officers. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation helped design the Next Generation Learning Challenges and fund the initiative.