LTLC, the Wallace Library, and the Provost's Office are pleased to announce the following funding opportunity for instructors interested in replacing textbooks or other course materials with Open Textbooks or other Open Educational Resources (OER) during the Spring 2021, Summer 2021, Fall 2021, January/Winter 2022, or Spring 2022 semesters. LTLC recognizes the effort required to research and implement the use of OER and will award stipends as follows:
*ADOPTION of a single textbook or a few OER: $500 to a single faculty member or $1000 to a group of two or more faculty (to be apportioned at the discretion of the group).
*REMIX a set of OER: $750 to a single faculty member or $1500 to a group of two or more faculty (to be apportioned at the discretion of the group.)
*AUTHOR an OER: $1250 to a single faculty member or $2500 to a group of two or more faculty (to be apportioned at the discretion of the group.)
Priority will be given to applications that directly support the adoption, remixing, or authoring of OER for an element of the Compass curriculum, such as two or more connected FYE courses.
R&I liaisons are available to help identify potential OER, and applicants are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED to have identified possible sources prior to submitting an application and to have consulted with an R&I liaison.
SPARC (The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) provides a useful definition of OER (
https://sparcopen.org/open-education/):
Open Educational Resources are teaching, learning, and research resources released under an open license, e.g., Creative Commons licenses (
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/), that permits free use and repurposing by others. OER can be full courses, course materials, lesson plans, open textbooks, learning objects, videos, games, tests, software, or any other tool, material, or technique that supports access to knowledge. OER are broadly considered to meet the “5Rs Framework,” meaning that users are free to:
*Retain: Users have the right to make, archive, and "own" copies of the content;
*Reuse: Content can be reused in its unaltered form;
*Revise: Content can be adapted, adjusted, modified or altered;
*Remix: The original or revised content can be combined with other content to create something new;
*Redistribute: Copies of the content can be shared with others in its original, revised or remixed form.
(For more information, see:
http://sparcopen.org/open-education/)
Using an open textbook or another OER has a number of advantages, the most important of which is creating a more equitable classroom by removing financial barriers for students. The Wallace Library has a dedicated webpage to help you find OER alternatives, and we encourage you to consult with one of the R&I liaisons for additional resources:
https://wheatoncollege.edu/library/for-faculty/open-educational-resources/The deadline to apply is 5:00pm on Friday, March 12, 2021.
By the end of the semester in which the course is taught, award recipients must submit a report detailing which OER were adopted, remixed, or authored and how successfully they were implemented. Funds will be distributed AFTER the course using the OER has been successfully completed and the report has been received. Please be aware that the content of your written report may be used in future library-sponsored workshops and promotional materials.
