05/08/2024
By Julie Nash, Donna Mellen and Brent Shell

The Office of the Provost invites faculty to apply for funding to develop or adopt Open Educational Resources for classroom use. Open Educational Resources (OER) consist of books, articles, images, videos, curricula, and other materials that 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 licenses.

The deadline to apply for OER Faculty Mini-Grants is May 31, 2024.

These funds are intended to support the work involved in finding, creating, using and sharing OER as replacements for required commercial textbooks. No experience with OER is necessary to apply. Textbooks selected or created should be intentionally inclusive reflecting students’ local and lived experiences to improve student learning outcomes (particularly from underserved communities). Content should be intentional about representation, pronouns, accessibility, context, etc.

  • Apply for up to $2,000 to develop, use and make available OER for a UML undergraduate course that serves at least 20 students/semester (preference given to large or multi-section courses)
    • Awardees can apply for up to an additional $500 to hire students to support their project (by writing, researching, editing, creating videos, etc.), or
  • Apply for $500 to adopt an already existing OER for one of your courses that serves at least 20 students/semester (preference given to large or multi-section courses)

Grant recipients will receive individualized support from librarians and a faculty fellow on finding, using, and publishing OER.

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 up to a $2,000 grant. Student funds are limited to $500 per project, although more may be requested later. depending on need.

Previous OER grant awardees are eligible to apply, provided the funds will be used to support a new project or if the original project is extensive and ongoing.

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 Fall 2025 at the latest
  • Plan to share or publish the materials for others’ use

Grant requirements:

  • Meet with library staff or faculty fellow for an individualized OER consultation to discuss a timeline and work plan
  • Participate in OER meetings (no more than three) over the next academic year
  • Be willing to share your experience of using an open resource with the UMass Lowell community (whether by interview, workshop, faculty symposium, OERscars etc.)
  • Complete a brief mid-grant survey
  • Complete an End of Grant Final Report (Qualtrics survey) to document your progress