04/20/2022
By Julie Nash

The Provost’s Office invites full-time faculty and senior adjunct faculty to apply for grant funding to develop Open Educational Resources for undergraduate courses. Open Educational Resources consist of books, articles, images, videos, curricula, and other materials which are free to be used in educational settings, subject to certain limits, without payment. These resources exist either in the Public Domain, or under one of several types of Creative Commons license. We've had a few requests to extend the deadline for the OER Faculty Grants until after graduation, so we invite you to take some additional time.

These grants are intended to fund the work involved in finding, creating, using, and sharing OER as replacements for required commercial textbooks. Funds can also be used when developing or using open resources to replace textbooks and costs associated with software or access codes for homework. No experience with OER is necessary to apply.

More Information:

  • Up to $5,000 per faculty member to develop, use, or publish OER for a UML undergraduate course that serves at least 20 students/semester (preference given to large or multi-section courses)
  • Grant recipients will receive individualized support from library staff and a faculty leader on finding, using, and publishing OER
  • Grant funds can be taken as a stipend, or used to pay for aspects of OER development, such as student assistants
  • Two or more faculty members may submit a combined application for a project that covers multiple courses or a multi-section course, in which case each faculty member may be eligible for a grant

Project proposals will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

  • Potential savings on current textbook costs for UML undergraduate students
  • Significance of the materials to the course’s objectives and subject area
  • Ability to be implemented by the 2023-2024 year or sooner

To Apply:

We ask you to address the following questions in the application:

  1. The number of students typically enrolled in the class
  2. Current cost of required course materials
  3. An estimated cost of required course materials using OER
  4. How you plan to incorporate an OER into your course
    o Create your own content?
    o Use a Creative Commons textbook?
    o Put together a course packet of curated materials?
  5. How you plan to spend the grant funds
  6. How you will assess the success of the OER in your class
    Examples might include instructor’s own observations, student engagement and/or success rates, student surveys, etc. (Over time, you might think about assessing how students do in subsequent courses for which yours is a prerequisite.)
  7.  When you plan to begin using OER course materials
  8. Once adopted, would you plan to continue using OER course materials?
  9. Additional comments for consideration (100 words maximum).

Grant requirements:

  • Meet with librarians for an individualized OER consultation to discuss a timeline and work plan.
  • Faculty must report when they provide OER savings to students (semester, class, section, course materials previous and final cost, approximate enrollment)
  • Faculty must participate in one speaking engagement or interview to share your experience of using an open resource with the UMass Lowell community.

Apply for an Open Educational Resource Faculty Grant by May 18

Getting started: