For the second year in a row, Colorado State University faculty can apply for grants to support the adoption, adaptation or creation of open educational resources for their courses. Any faculty member can apply for a grant to support their OER project.
CSU’s Open Educational Resources Grant Initiative has received $25,000 from the Colorado OER Council to support the work required to transition courses from using commercial materials to OER. Open educational resources can be any material used in teaching that is licensed for free reuse, usually under a Creative Commons license.
The deadline to submit an application is May 15 with decisions expected on May 30.
Three tiers of funding
Individual grants will be awarded at three tiers to reflect the different levels of time and effort needed to implement:
- Adopt an existing open textbook for a course: Up to $1,000
- Adapt existing OER for your course: Up to $2,000
- Create new OER where none exists: Up to $4,000
While financial support is critical, faculty can also request support from an instructional designer and a librarian to assist in navigating their project.
The OER Grant Initiative is part of a larger series of programs at CSU focused on open educational resources, spearheaded by the Libraries and the Office of the Provost. Grants awarded are administered by the Libraries.
Last year’s OER Grant Initiative received nine proposals from various departments across the University. Eight were funded, with implementation no later than next fall semester. These funded projects will reduce the textbook cost burden for 970 students per year, representing a total savings of approximately $148,000.
Questions about the OER Grant Initiative may be sent to Christine Pawliuk at Christine.Pawliuk@colostate.edu.
