DigiTex Program to Increase the Number of STEM Courses

The Digital Higher Education Consortium of Texas (DigiTex), a coalition of community colleges in Texas, has been awarded a $645,405 grant from the Greater Texas Foundation for its flagship project, Harnessing Course Sharing to Support Texas Pathways at Scale. This funding will expand a collaboration between Texas community colleges and Acadeum, the creator of an online course-sharing platform used by 400 colleges and universities, to increase access to STEM and shorter-term courses, and in turn, improve persistence and on-time completion through guided pathways.

“Too often, the limited nature of course offerings at rural and remote community colleges can create unintended barriers for learners as they navigate pathways to meaningful credentials while balancing their lives,” said Judith Sebesta, executive director of DigiTex. “This grant extends the work already underway to help Texas community colleges more strategically work together to share solutions and ideas that allow us to better meet our challenges head on. By sharing courses with each other, we can ensure that every learner in our state has access to in-demand courses no matter where they live.” The new project will address two primary goals, first to increase the number of STEM and in-demand shorter-term courses that are a part of the existing course sharing initiative. Second, the new funding will help partner colleges better implement course sharing strategies.