Each semester, the University Libraries and Global Campus offer compensation for faculty to reduce the cost of textbooks for their students by using Open Educational Resources.
According to the Hewlett Foundation, “Open Educational Resources 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.”
Faculty who adopt open access course materials by incorporating previously published open access materials into their classes, thereby eliminating the need for students to purchase textbooks or other course materials, will receive $3,000.
Faculty who adapt open access course materials by choosing existing Open Educational Resources and significantly altering them to update the material or to fit the needs of the course will receive $4,500.
Faculty who create open access course materials will receive $7,500. At least 75 percent of the course content must be original, with the remaining 25 percent or less being adopted open access materials.
All potential applicants must schedule pre-application consultations prior to Oct. 26. Submitted project applications are reviewed and scored by the Open Educational Resources team and campus advisory group. After the consultation, potential participants will have until Oct. 31 to complete applications.
“Open Educational Resources can play a small but valuable role in helping combat the ever-increasing cost of attending college,” said Elaine Thornton, open education and distance learning librarian. “They also offer both faculty and students the opportunity to engage with course materials in new ways as creators, adopters and users. The University Libraries welcomes the opportunity to work with teaching faculty interested in adopting, adapting, or creating OER.”
Thirteen faculty and staff have received OER Course Conversion assistance since the program began in 2017: Cash Acrey, Daniel Barth, Julio Gea-Banacloche, Patricia Herzog, Justin Hunter, Jim Gigantino, Garry McDonald, Matthew Mihalka, Adam Rex Pope, Luis Restrepo, Zhenghui Sha, Michael Thomsen and Jingzian Wu.