Open Oregon Educational Resources seeks grant proposals from community college instructors that implement high-impact, culturally relevant/inclusive, collaborative projects in support of open education and reduced textbook costs in Oregon Transfer Compass courses.
Oregon Transfer Compass has two parts:
- Core Transfer Maps, which includes WR 121 along with AAOT-eligible Math, Arts & Letters, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences courses. The HECC recommends that colleges look at high enrollment courses on their lists of AAOT courses to prioritize proposals.
- Major Transfer Maps, which are not yet available but will be developed for Biology, Business, Education, and English by December, 2019. Major Transfer Maps may include courses beyond those represented in the Course Transfer Map list. The HECC recommends that those applying for funding work with their institutions’ representatives on the Major Transfer Map Workgroups to identify courses likely to be part of the Major Transfer Maps (see pp. 6-7 in USTA Launch Meeting Materials for contact info).
Completed application forms are due November 9, 2018. The grant committee will notify applicants by November 30, 2018. Redesigned courses must be taught in Winter or Spring 2019 and all projects must be completed by June 1, 2019.
Application form: https://goo.gl/forms/XTryudgQcPvlv7Z82
Preview application questions (grant applications will ONLY be accepted via the application form): Application Preview
Funding for community college OER grants is provided by the Community Colleges and Workforce Development office of the Higher Education Coordinating Commission.
Proposal categories
Proposals for course redesign are invited in six categories. Consider the timeline carefully when proposing for a category that will require creation of more original content. You must pilot your redesigned course in Winter or Spring 2019.
| 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 SOC 204 course, making use of OpenStax Sociology 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. 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. |
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 Textbook Library, BCcampus, OER Commons, and the Open Oregon Resources page. (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, and find out how much it costs the institution to pay you and your team members the grant award. This is called OPE and if you don’t enter a dollar amount on the grant application you could lose up to 65% of your award towards employer-side costs.
Requirements for grant recipients:
- Teach at least one section of your course with OER instead of copyright course materials before June 1, 2019 (in other words, during winter or spring 2019). If you can’t guarantee that you’ll be teaching before June 1, 2019, 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 1, 2019) compared to grant amount
- Quality considerations such as accessibility of proposed content, support for user experience and curriculum, and appeal for future adoption in other settings
- 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
Amy Hofer, Open Oregon Educational Resources
Masyn Phoenix, College Librarian/Library Director, Tillamook Bay Community College, Oregon Community College Library Association
Laird Sheldahl, Biology, Mt Hood Community College, 2016 Grant Cohort
Michael Weissenfluh, Computer/Business Administration Instructor, Tillamook Bay Community College, Oregon Community College Distance Learning Association
Julie Downing, Central Oregon Community College, Council of Instructional Administrators
Carol Raymundo, Linn-Benton Community College, Oregon Association of Higher Education and Disability
I am concerned about the requirement that this work be completed between November 30 and April 1, yet there are grants for a complete writing of a textbook. How could that even happen? No one writes a complete textbook in 3 months. I would like to take one such a major project, but this tight timeline makes that impossible. Without a sabbatical already in place — and at my college as well as others you need lots of lead time to ask for one — there is no way I could do a more minor project in those 4 months either.
Why can’t the end product come on a later timeline? Without that change, this seems like a tantalizing opportunity which no one can take advantage of.
Hi Traci,
Sorry I didn’t see your message earlier! I agree, this timeline doesn’t lend itself to bigger projects. I left all the categories in place just in case it was feasible for someone – for example, with a very large project team, a file drawer full of existing content, or as you suggest, a sabbatical lined up. I expect that most of the awards for the current round of funding will be for adopt or minor revision.
I hope to be able to offer grants with longer timelines in the next biennium, but unfortunately the timing of when the funding becomes available and when projects need to be completed is beyond my control (and not related to faculty needs).
– Amy
Hello Amy,
Another question about timelines and textbooks =) Would there be any chance of approval if for a fall-quarter class? I’ve been working on content for a class that is typically taught in the fall (there’s also a summer online section), and I’m actually currently teaching it. For a new online textbook (I’ve been discussing this for some time with a collaborator, and have some starting notes), would it be better to wait until the next grant announcement? The major sticking point here is when the class will next be offered.
Thanks,
Eve
Hi Eve, yes, it would be best to wait because we need to demonstrate student savings during the current biennium – hence the requirement to teach your redesigned course during winter or spring term. – Amy