Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning and research materials in any medium, digital or otherwise, that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with minimal or no restrictions. For our Affordable Learning Initiative, we are widening the scope to include appropriately licensed library-subscribed resources as a potential source for transitioning away from for-cost textbooks. For more details on OER and library-licensed materials, see our Affordable Learning @ Arcadia page.
Our inaugural round of grants was offered in Fall 2023 with three grantees selected for courses running in Fall 2024; our next round is now open for submission for Fall 2025 courses. Deadline for submissions is December 6, 2024; an information session will be held in the Commons Meeting Rooms on November 18 at 11am.
Grant Opportunity and Scope of Work
Two grant opportunities are available to all course instructors of record, full or part time:
- Explore an Open Textbook / OER ($250): this grant is for the recipient to identify and review an existing open textbook or OER for a course they teach and submit that review. In the event no suitable OER exists, the grantee will write up their project for the Affordable Learning Team with a description of their search and why any materials they have located did not meet their courses’ needs.
- Adopt an Open Textbook / OER ($1,000): this grant is for the recipient to adopt an existing open textbook or curate resources for a single course. A group submission is possible for a course with multiple sections and instructors with the award split among contributors
Explore an Open Textbook / OER
($250) Recipients will be expected to seek out and identify one or more open textbooks/OERs that could be adopted for a course they currently teach or a course they have been approved to teach during 2025-26*. (This includes the Spring or Summer 2025 terms and the 2025-26 academic year.) Recipients may have a resource already identified or can work with their library liaison to explore potential sources. At the conclusion of their review project, recipients will submit a review of the identified resource to the Affordable Learning team and their librarian and, after review, will publish the review in an open venue such as the Open Textbook Library, OER Commons, or MERLOT. Arcadia’s ScholarWorks is also available as a publication venue. Review criteria will follow the Open Education Network’s guidelines. If no suitable OER can be found, the recipient will submit a summary of their search and evaluation to the team.
Adopt an Open Textbook / OER
($1,000) Recipients will be expected to adopt an existing open textbook or curate resources for a single course that will run in the 2025-2026 academic year. New textbook adoptions should be sourced from traditional OER resources, although library-subscribed resources with unlimited access licenses and no Digital Rights Management (DRM) restrictions may also be considered. Recipients will have support from their library liaison on adopting, adapting, integrating, and implementing open resources. At the conclusion of their project recipients will be expected to share their experience about adopting OER with the Arcadia community via a presentation, panel, or article. Recipients will also be encouraged to join the following year’s Affordable Learning Team to advise future grantees.
A typical scope of work for an open textbook / OER adoption may include:
- Identifying and reviewing open or library-licensed materials in digital format (with unlimited access) that cover course learning objectives
- Mapping course learning objectives to sections or chapters of those materials
- Editing/remixing content from those new materials into lessons
- Uploading lessons, links, etc. into Canvas
- Identify early term and late term student assignment assessments to measure student performance
- Share your experience about adopting OER with the Arcadia community via a presentation, panel, or article
To apply please submit your information through this form; applications will be considered through December 6, 2024; applicants will be notified of the committee’s decision by the first day of classes in the Spring 2025 semester. The library will hold a grant information session at 11am on November 18, 2024, in Commons Rooms 1-3.
For any questions please contact the Affordable Learning Team (below).
