By Lauren McKeen McDonald, Open Education Librarian
Nine applicants of the 2021 Open Educational Resource grant will receive at least $5,000 to develop free teaching material for a Northwestern undergraduate course. The grant committee estimates that the completed projects will save 2,370 undergraduates $176,000 in the first year.
The Open Educational Resources Grant (OER) Program is designed to support faculty who are interested in developing and using OER in their undergraduate courses. Funded by the Office of the Provost and University Libraries, the grant program supports the work involved in finding, creating, using, and sharing OER as a replacement for commercial textbooks.
OER are free teaching materials that are licensed for unrestricted distribution and modification to fit the course-specific needs of instructors. Some examples of OER include textbooks, websites, presentations, syllabi, and lesson plans. While most OER start in digital format, files can be converted so faculty and students can print their materials at home or through a printing service. OER support is part of the Affordable Instructional Resources (AIR) initiative, a multi-departmental effort across Northwestern to address the impact of rising cost commercial textbooks and course packets.
The grant program, which is currently in its third year, has supported the implementation of 11 projects from across disciplines. In addition to saving students thousands of dollars, the completed OER texts have provided stress-free course material access during the pandemic, when shipping delays and lack of physical course reserves has compounded an already difficult pandemic year. A sampling of completed projects can be viewed on Northwestern’s OER website.
Following a 9-week application window, six projects were chosen:
- Alex Birdwell and Michele Zugnoni: Design Thinking and Communication (ENGLISH/DSGN 106); This is the second grant for this team as it continues to expand and improve heavily used DTC workbooks.
- Desiree Hanford and Patti Wolter: Reporting and Writing (JOUR 201-1)
- Aaron Greicius and Sean McAfee: Single-Variable Differential Calculus and Single-Variable Integral Calculus (MATH 220-1 and 220-2)
- J. Michelle Molina: Introduction to Religion (REL 170)
- Vincent St-Amour: Data Structures and Data Management (COMP SCI 214)
- Ana C Thomé Williams: Reading and Speaking Portuguese (PORT 201)
Grant funds will pay for the development, use, and publishing of OER. In addition, each grant recipient will receive individualized support from librarians on finding, using, and publishing OER. Work is scheduled to begin over the summer with grant projects expected to launch before or during the 2023 academic year.
Although the grant opportunity is now closed, OER support is available from the Libraries year round. If you are a faculty or instructor interested in exploring OER options for your course, contact lauren.mckeen@northwestern.edu. The Libraries’ OER specialists are happy to meet with you individually for a consultation, or to speak with your department about OER within your subject area.