Career Readiness Integration with AI Support
The collaborative effort among the three career centers will provide faculty with specialized training on embedding career competencies into their OER materials using the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) career framework.
This professional development will equip faculty to identify natural connection points between their course content and key career competencies such as critical thinking, communication, teamwork, digital literacy, leadership, professionalism, and career management. Through workshops and guided implementation sessions, faculty will learn to develop authentic assignments and activities that simultaneously reinforce course learning objectives while building students’ professional capabilities.
AI tools like GPT-4 can significantly enhance this process by helping faculty generate relevant workplace scenarios, create industry-specific case studies, develop role-playing exercises, and design reflection prompts that connect academic concepts to workplace applications.
Additionally, AI can assist in crafting rubrics that assess both academic and career competencies, generating diverse examples of how course concepts appear in various professional contexts, and creating scaffolded activities that progressively build students’ career readiness.
This integration ensures that students not only master academic content but also develop and articulate the transferable skills employers seek, making the OER materials even more impactful for student success.
AI Integration in OER
As part of this grant program, faculty will receive comprehensive professional development focused on integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into their OER materials and curriculum. This training will be embedded throughout the program components and will include:
AI Integration Training Components
During the Teaching with AI program and OER Summer Institute, participants will engage with specialized AI content that covers:
- Fundamentals of AI in Education: Introduction to how large language models like Chat GPT function and their appropriate applications in educational contexts
- Ethical AI Implementation: Guidance on responsible AI use, addressing issues of bias, transparency, and academic integrity when incorporating AI into course materials
- AI-Enhanced Content Creation: Hands-on training in using Chat GPT to assist in generating, adapting, and curating OER content, including developing diverse examples, explanations, and case studies
- Personalized Learning Pathways: Techniques for leveraging AI to create adaptive learning experiences that respond to individual student needs and learning styles
- AI-Powered Assessment Tools: Strategies for developing formative and summative assessments that utilize AI for feedback and evaluation
Student AI Literacy: Methods for teaching students about AI capabilities and limitations, preparing them to be critical consumers and ethical users of AI technologies
OER Defined
Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning and research materials in any medium – digital or otherwise – that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions.
Open Educational Resources are published with a license that allows users to do some or all of the following:
| Retain | make, own, and control a copy of the resource (e.g., download and keep your own copy) |
| Reuse | use your original, revised, or remixed copy of the resource publicly (e.g., on a website, in a presentation, in a class) |
| Revise | edit, adapt, and modify your copy of the resource (e.g., translate into another language) |
| Remix | combine your original or revised copy of the resource with other existing material to create something new (e.g., make a mashup) |
| Redistribute | share copies of your original, revised, or remixed copy of the resource with others (e.g., post a copy online or give one to a friend) |
OER can be anything used in the classroom for teaching and learning such as textbooks, slides, assignments, syllabi, videos, readings, and more. While most OER are digital, they can exist in any format.
Culturally Relevant OER
OER Benefits Students
A 2019 study from Florida Virtual Campus, students reported that they made the following choices as a result of not being able to purchase textbooks and/or ancillaries:
- Not purchase a required textbook (64.2%)
- Take fewer courses (42.8%)
- Not register for a specific course (40.5%)
- Earn a poor grade (35.6%)
- Drop, withdraw from or fail a course (58.2%)
Lack of access to textbooks has consequences. A number of studies have shown that free, openly licenced textbooks benefits students in a number of ways:
- Reduces the costs of attending college
- Makes college more affordable
- Addresses issues of inequity
- Ensures students have access to the textbook on the first day or class
- Improves student learning
- Improves student success (i.e., persistence and completion)
Pell eligible and minoritized students can also specifically benefit from having access to OER. In the University of Georgia’s pilot study, student success measures improved. “When considering Federal Pell eligibility, we observed an increase in A through B+ letter grades and a decrease in B though DFW grades. A significant decrease in DFW rates for Pell-eligible students was found (a 4.43 percent change) when OER was adopted as the textbook for the class. This research [also] revealed significant differences in academic performance (average final grade) for both White and non-White students enrolled in OER courses.” In the Achieving the Dream community college study, 48% of Pell Grant recipients and 52% of underrepresented minorities said OER courses had a significant impact on their ability to afford college compared to 41% for other students.
Some resources to review
About CA-ROTEL Project
The CA-ROTEL Project (focused on Career Readiness and Artificial Intelligence) is 100% funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, (FIPSE). The Department does not mandate or prescribe practices, models, or other activities described or discussed in this publication. The contents of this Open Educational Resource (OER) may contain examples of, adaptations of, and links to resources created and maintained by another public or private organization. The Department does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of this outside information. The contents of the OER materials do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and an endorsement by the Federal Government should not be assumed.