Supported in part by funding through the State of Minnesota Legislature and Minnesota State, Minnesota State announces its Z-Degree Project participants for FY26-FY27. Z-degree courses for these participating campuses will be available by spring of 2027.
Z-degrees are a complete associate or bachelor’s degree program that exclusively use course resources that are no cost to students such as open educational resources (OER), open textbooks, and library-curated materials.
With these additions, eleven (11) Minnesota State campuses currently offer Z-degrees and sixteen (16) are in process of exploring or implementing Z-degrees.
Exploration
The following six (6) colleges and universities received up to $25,000 to explore Z-degrees on their campuses to prepare a foundation for Z-degree development, such as faculty development, open textbook exploration and review, or building open textbook capacity in the transfer curriculum.
- Bemidji State University
- Minnesota State Community and Technical College
- Minnesota State University, Mankato
- Minnesota State College Southeast
- Southwest Minnesota State University
- Winona State University
Implementation
The following three (3) colleges and universities received up to $100,000 to create, finalize, and implement a new Z-degree by spring of 2027.
- Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College
- Minnesota State University, Mankato
- South Central College
Expansion/Sustaining
The following five (5) colleges and universities received up to $50,000 to increase the number and type of courses offered in an existing Z-degree, such as adding additional courses or course sections, and increasing the number of faculty using zero-cost course resources in a course already part of an existing Z-degree.
- Anoka-Ramsey Community College
- Century College
- Minnesota State Community and Technical College
- Minnesota North College
- Minnesota State University Moorhead
Learn More
Learn more about Z-degrees and OER at Minnesota State at www.MinnState.edu/OER.
Questions?
Contact Michael Olesen
Interim System Director for Student Success Technologies
Educational Development and Technology, Minnesota State ASA