Stipends for OER Development
The Regents OER Grant Program is now closed. Thank you to all who applied. Applications will be reviewed in August and decisions will be announced in early September.
University of Iowa, Iowa State University, and University of Northern Iowa Libraries are pleased to announce a joint funding opportunity for the creation of Open Educational Resources (OER). This program is open to 2-4 person teams of faculty, graduate students, and staff at any of the three Board of Regents State of Iowa public universities.
What are OER?
OER (such as textbooks, videos, assessment tools, lab books, research materials or interactive course modules) are free for students and carry legal permission for open use. The open licenses under which these items are released allow users to create, reuse, and redistribute copies of the resources.
Why use OER?
The rising costs of textbooks have a real impact on students and their ability to successfully complete their educational goals. OER helps address this concern by providing course resources to students that are free of cost and available for them from the first day of class. In addition to saving students money, OER offers instructors the flexibility to improve upon existing resources by allowing you to tailor materials to meet the needs of your students. With the help of the Regents OER Grant Program, employees of all three Regent universities can receive training and compensation get started using OER.
The Grant Program
This grant will provide awards to project teams hoping to create new open educational resources for their courses. In addition to financial awards, successful applicants will receive intensive training on OER development. This training will include an OER development “sprint” in September 2021, where grantees will work intensively on their projects over the course of a two-day workshop.
The Regents OER grant program was created with support from the Governor's Emergency Education Relief Fund (GEER Fund), which was established in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act passed by Congress in 2020.
Award Types
|
Award Type |
Award Funding |
Project Description |
|---|---|---|
|
Type A: Ancillary Project |
Up to $1,500 per team member |
Funds the development of presentation slides, test banks, lecture videos, and/or other ancillary materials to accompany an existing open textbook. Consult your institution's librarian contact and/or OER website (see below) for assistance locating existing open textbooks in your discipline. |
|
Type B: Textbook Project |
Up to $7,500 per team member |
Funds the development of a new open textbook, lab book, or handbook that will serve as the core text for a course. |
Apply Now!
- Call for proposalsThis document is a good place to start. It provides detailed information about the funding, preparing your proposal, and submitting it for review.
- Proposals templateHere you will find the Regents OER Grant Program application document itself. The application will ask you to provide information about the course you’re targeting, the current resources being used in the class, and the members of your project team. You will also need to prepare a short essay (1,000-2,000 words) that explains your project's objectives, impact, plan for DEI, timeline, and assessment plan. Finally, a letter of recommendation is required from your department chair.
- Scoring rubricsThese rubrics are what application reviewers use to evaluate each proposal. You may want to familiarize yourself with them before applying.
- Submit your applicationOnce you have completed your proposal, please submit your application here as a PDF file(s). Applications are due on August 2, 2021 at noon.
Feel free to contact UI Scholarly Communications Librarian, Mahrya Burnett at mahrya-burnett@uiowa.edu or the Iowa Regents OER Grant Team at regentsoer@gmail.com.