Based off predicted enrollments we have estimated new savings (not including figures from our 2019 grants) of over $36,000 for over 600 students for Fall 2020!
Congratulations to the following OER 2020 grant awardees!
This year (2020), the OER Task Force is pleased to offer grants to all UM-Dearborn faculty/instructors with a total fund of $10,000 - doubling the pilot effort. Faculty/instructors may apply for any of the four different categories of grants ranging in awards from $250 to $2,000 to implement OER in their courses.
Individuals, teams, and departments/programs may submit proposals describing a project in the following categories:
An individual instructor or department team will work with Mardigian librarians to replace existing commercially published course materials with library resources (articles, e-books, films). Awardees will have to document the process of transformation, and create a bibliography showing what library materials replaced commercial textbooks for public sharing by the Mardigian Library.
An individual instructor or department team will create high quality supplemental/ancillary course materials that support the overall course/topic or support an existing OER resource (or library materials), which will be published and shared with a Creative Commons license. These materials could include lecture notes, lesson plans, PowerPoint presentations, assignments, and class-based activities. Applicants should indicate the type and scope of materials to be created and should explain how these materials fill a gap or meet a need.
An individual instructor or department team will explore, document, and implement an OER textbook to replace a currently used commercial text. Must be a course at the 100 or 200 level. Department Chair sign-off is required. Awardees must write and publish a peer review of the selected OER textbook they adopt on the Open Textbook Network website.
An individual instructor or department team will substantially remix or modify an existing OER resource, publish it using a Creative Commons license, and document the process to share with the OER Task Force. Department Chair sign-off is required. Applicants should indicate the type and scope of materials to be remixed/modified and should explain how these materials fill a gap or meet a need.
About the Grant
The goal of the OER Grant Initiative is to encourage instructor experimentation and innovation in finding new, better, and less costly ways to deliver learning materials to their students through open educational resources and library materials in UM-Dearborn classrooms and online courses. In this context, open means free plus reuse rights, which is generally accomplished through a Creative Commons license. There are four models through which OER and open access may be implemented:
adopt library materials to replace commercial texts
create OER supplemental materials to meet classroom needs
adopt OER to replace high cost commercial texts and course materials
remix OER to replace commercial texts
Each option requires investments in time and effort to identify materials and adjust the course to new material. The third and fourth models, adoption and remixing/modifying new resources, can be quite time consuming. The OER Task Force’s OER Grant Initiative seeks to support and incentivize OER and open access adoption, adaptation, and supplemental creation through small grants to participating instructors.
Although primarily intended to focus on supporting faculty who will create, adopt or remix/modify OER for high enrollment courses at UM-Dearborn, consideration will be given to faculty and instructors who are involved in OER project development that will have smaller local impact but broad and deep impact across the state, country, and/or internationally.
Eligibility of Applicants and Projects
Any instructor of record for a course at UM-Dearborn is eligible for funding. Funds may be used to complete the project outlined in their proposal pursuant to the creation, adoption, adaptation, and implementation of an open resource in a course they are teaching or will soon teach. Funding may compensate time needed to assess, choose, and adopt/adaptan open textbook or to hire a student to assist in the adaptation or creation of a new open educational resource. Projects may be collaborative with multiple authors across institutional boundaries, and may span multiple semesters if the scope of the project warrants, as long as work is completed within one calendar year from date of award. “Mid-stream” projects may include requests for an award to complete an OER or open textbook, for example by using funds to hire a student or programmer to digitize, translate, correct hyperlinks, or maintain an existing open resource. These are examples of how funds may be used and should not be interpreted as a complete list.
Instructors who have received grant funding from other sources for OER related material review, adoption, or remixing in the last three years are still eligible to apply, but must provide a brief description of the funding in their application.
Material eligibility: the fund cannot be used to cover purchase of commercial electronic versions of textbooks, rentals of textbooks, or for already adopted open texts.
How to Apply
Proposals should be submitted via the Google application form.
Application Submission
Completed applications will be accepted now through February 24, 2020, and reviewed with notification to awardees no later than March 27, 2020.
Selection and Additional Criteria
Complete submissions will be evaluated by members of the OER Task Force and the Library Research Center. Awardees will be selected based on the narrative responses to the proposal form, as well as:
Impact; first consideration will be given to projects that offer the highest potential savings to UM-Dearborn students (based on enrollment numbers and current text costs);
Scope of work proposed is feasible within the given project timeline;
Quality and strength of the application and how well it meets requirements;
Timeline to implementation (preference for shorter over longer);
Ability to create, adopt, or adapt a quality product and actively engage students in the learning process;
Sustainability of the resource beyond initial use;
Willingness to apply an OER-compatible Creative Commons license to the finished product (if adapting or creating);
Accessibility and usability of the resource for all students
We will try to balance adoption, adaption, and creation proposals funded.
If you're funded...
Grant Disbursement
This $10,000 fund will be distributed to award recipients over two payments, half for Summer 2020 and half mid-Fall 2020, to as many excellent proposals as feasible. Half of an award will be distributed at the beginning of the project and the remainder upon completion or implementation of the OER in the classroom, unless circumstances of the project dictate otherwise (such as hiring a student). Awardees will be informed via email. Awards may be disbursed either to the individual/s PDF fund or their department/program according to their preference.
Awardees are expected to comply with several provisions designed to ensure the openness and availability of the funded project, as well as provide feedback to inform assessment of the grant initiative. Awardees agree to the following conditions:
License final product(s) with an OER-compatible (e.g.Creative Commons) license(if remixing or creating).
Meet with the OER Task Force mid-project to provide an update about the experience of creating, adopting, or remixing the open resource and the expected outcomes upon use.
Participate in a campus panel at the end of the academic year to present experiences, share findings, and make recommendations concerning the program.
Sign a Memorandum of Agreement between the awardee and the OER Task Force outlining expectations and obligations of both parties (required).
Submit all deliverables/implement OER as described in application/memorandum of agreement within one calendar year of award notification.
OER Task Force Responsibilities
Support the administration of the fund, accept and process the applications, manage awards, ensure data is collected about impact, provide copyright and open license consultations.
Questions and Contact Information
This initiative is funded by the Mardigian Library and is managed by the OER Task Force comprised of instructional faculty, subject librarians, instructional designers, and library staff. For questions about this initiative, contact the OER Task Force at ML-Committee-OER@umich.edu.
