Call for Proposals: Open Educational Resources Grants

By | May 27, 2022
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Open Oregon Educational Resources seeks grant proposal ideas from community college instructors that implement high-impact, culturally relevant/inclusive, collaborative projects in support of open education and reduced textbook costs in lower-division courses.

Completed application forms are due July 11, 2022. Applicants will be notified of grant awards by August 1, 2022. Redesigned courses must be taught during the 2022-23 academic year and all projects must be completed by June 1, 2023.

Funding for community college OER grants is provided by the Community Colleges and Workforce Development office of the Higher Education Coordinating Commission. The funding for this round of OER grants is likely but not certain. If this year’s program is not funded, we will roll forward all submissions to the 2023-25 OER grant application in Spring 2023 (you will have the opportunity to revise your proposal if you want to).

Proposal categories

Proposals for course redesign are invited in seven categories. Consider the timeline carefully when proposing for a category that will require creation of more original content. You must pilot your redesigned course during the 2022-23 academic year.

 

CATEGORY EXAMPLE
1. As Is – Adopt an existing open textbook or open course content without making changes to the content ($750 per person, capped at $3,750 per course). Redesign your ASTR 121 course, making use of OpenStax Astronomy as course materials.
2. Maintenance – Update existing OER that requires minor editing for currency or relevance, without major changes to the content or structure ($1,000 per person, capped at $5,000 per course). Redesign your COMM 111 course, making use of Stand Up, Speak Out. Incorporate additional video examples of speeches that support learning objectives while adding representation of diverse speakers to the curriculum.
3. Interactives – Adopt existing OER and develop missing ancillaries such as quiz question banks, lecture slides, or lab manuals; the preferred platform for output is a master course shell ($1,500 per person, capped at $7,500 per course). Redesign your CG 100 course, making use of Blueprint for Success in College and Career, Oregon Edition. Create a fillable workbook where students practice the skills covered in the textbook.
4. Revise/Remix – Update existing OER with major revisions, or develop custom course content from multiple open educational resources and original open content in order to support learning objectives not met by existing open resources ($2,000 per person, capped at $10,000 per course). Redesign your CAS 170 course, making use of How to Use Microsoft Excel: The Careers in Practice Series. Significantly revise each chapter to include new software features and write new chapters to cover learning objectives for your course not supported by the original book. (Note: for the finished product from this example, see Beginning Excel by Noreen Brown, Barbara Lave, Julie Romey, Mary Schatz, and Diane Shingledecker.)
5. Author – Create a substantially new open textbook or open course where it is possible to demonstrate that quality resources are not currently available to meet learning objectives ($6,000 per person with a project cap of $30,000 per course). Review available open content for your developmental reading/writing course. Determine that none of the existing OER for this population of learners treats reading and writing as integrated skills. Write your own course materials to support your learning objectives, tailored to your own students and pedagogical approach. Redesign your WRD 90/98 course, making use of your OER. (Note: for the finished product from this example, see The Word on College Reading and Writing by Monique Babin, Carol Burnell, Susan Pesznecker, Nicole Rosevear, and Jaime Wood.)
6. Other – Propose a different kind of project not covered by the categories above (up to $30,000). Proposals should directly use grant money rather than re-granting smaller amounts to other applicants. Example 1: Develop infrastructure to make possible accessible, interactive math textbooks. (Note: for the finished product from this example, see WeBWorK-MathBook XML Bridge Project Complete.)

Example 2: Use this category for very large departments that need special consideration to adopt/adapt for courses taught by more than 5 instructors.
7. Mentor – Support one or more colleagues to redesign a course using OER based on your own experience using, adapting, or creating OER ($750 per person, must be partnered with another proposal). Example: One faculty member previously received a grant to adopt OpenStax Biology. They are now joining their colleagues’ Category 1 (adopt) proposal as mentor so that two more faculty in their department can adopt the same book, sharing course shells, slide decks, etc.

Eligibility

Applications are welcome from Oregon’s public community college stakeholders, including faculty, librarians, support professionals, administrators, students, bookstore staff, and multi-institutional collaborations. Teams can include members that are not affiliated with Oregon’s public community colleges.

Requirements for applicants

  • Identify the open educational resources that you will use as your starting point in the project, or demonstrate that existing resources are not available to meet your learning objectives. Good places to start your research include the Open Oregon Resources page, the Open Textbook Library, and OER Commons. Contact a librarian or Amy Hofer if you need search help.
  • Identify the support available for your project’s needs, such as librarians, accessibility services, technical support for online options, bookstore for print options, copy editors, peer reviewers, illustrators, etc. It is very unlikely that your project needs no support, so strengthen your application by lining this up in advance.
  • Notify the unit that will receive and distribute the grant funds that you are applying for this grant.
  • Secure a letter of support from your department chair, dean, or similar role that is responsible for assigning courses. The purpose of the letter is to verify that if you receive the grant, you or a designated alternate will be assigned to teach the redesigned course at least one time before June 30, 2023. Letters can be attached via the form or emailed to [email protected].

Requirements for grant recipients

  • Teach at least one section of your course with OER instead of copyright course materials before June 30, 2023. If you can’t guarantee that you’ll be teaching before June 30, 2023, you must identify a teaching partner in advance who will commit to using the open materials if your section doesn’t run.
  • Report your OER adoption to your campus store before the deadline for HEOA reporting.
  • Share your work with an appropriate open license so that others can easily adopt and reuse (Open Licenses Step by Step).
  • Work with Open Oregon Educational Resources to develop a timeline of deliverables, payment schedule, and impact data.
  • Publicize your work by providing Open Oregon Educational Resources with press-worthy updates, presenting in webinars, workshops, and professional meetings, or giving a presentation to your department colleagues; and by posting your adoption on the Open Oregon Resources Page.

Project proposals will be evaluated using a rubric that balances the following criteria

  • Student savings during grant period (through June 30, 2023) compared to grant amount
  • Design that considers accessibility, universal design, and user experience
  • Department commitment (for example, redesign all sections of a class or all classes in a sequence)
  • Cultural relevance/inclusiveness
  • Creative pedagogy
  • Courses where fewer existing open resources are currently available
  • Feasibility of project as proposed
  • Equitable distribution of funds statewide

Community College OER Grant Committee

  • Julie Downing, Central Oregon Community College, Council of Instructional Administrators
  • Noelle Ebert, Southwestern Oregon Community College, Oregon Community College Library Association
  • Amy Hofer, Open Oregon Educational Resources
  • Michelle Huss, Portland Community College, 2021-23 Grant Cohort
  • Patricia Kepler, Portland Community College, Oregon Association of Higher Education and Disability
  • Michael Weissenfluh, Tillamook Bay Community College, Oregon Community College Distance Learning Association
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