OER Award Program
The Michigan State University Libraries' annual OER Awards program provides incentives for instructors interested in adopting, adapting, or creating OER as an alternative to traditional textbooks and a pathway to increasing student success.
Applications for the 2024-25 OER Awards will be accepted from September 3, 2024 until October 11, 2024. The call for applications and application forms will be available on our Online OER Guide after September 3.
Winning applicants will begin working on their projects in late January and will implement their new materials in the classroom in either Fall of 2025 or Spring of 2026. In addition to a monetary stipend, participants receive support from the OER Team as they find or develop content, implement accessibility measures, and provide access to these materials for students.
Award applicants are strongly encouraged to meet with Linda Miles, OER Librarian, for a one-on-one project consultation before preparing your proposal.
Please contact Linda Miles, milesli3@msu.edu.
For more information, please visit the Libraries' Online OER Guide.
Application Categories:
Adoption of Existing OER
- This category entails identifying an existing openly licensed textbook or other course materials suitable for your intended course, reviewing materials to ensure congruence with course learning outcomes, ensuring that these materials have the quality and rigor to maintain the integrity of the course, and piloting the use of these materials in your classroom. The maximum award for this category is $1,000 per successful application.
Adaptation/Remix of OER
- This category entails significant revision of existing OER course materials and/or remixing of material from multiple OERs that results in a new openly-licensed resource. Examples include: editing existing chapters of an open textbook, adding new materials from other sources, removing sections not appropriate, and/or bringing together content from several openly licensed sources. The maximum award is $2,500 per successful application.
Creation of New OER
- This category entails the creation of a completely new OER resource for a course by developing an open textbook and any supplemental materials (laboratory manuals, interactive exercises, homework prompts, learning components, etc.). The maximum award is $4,000 per successful application.
OER Ancillaries Awards
- This category entails the creation of curricular materials such as test question banks, "workbooks" or collections of interactive exercises, quizzes, slides, videos, or lesson plans. The maximum award is $2,500 per successful application.
Continuous Improvement Award
- This category entails substantial improvement and revision of the OER resource(s) used in an existing course (for example, a new edition), or the replacement of an OER resource used previously with new or better OER materials. The maximum award is $3,000 per successful application.
Scaling Up OER Award
- This category entails large-scale implementation of an existing OER resource across multiple sections of a course. The project must be slated to affect 1,000 or more students per year and requires departmental support and department-wide adoption of OER to all applicable sections of a course. The maximum award is $5,000 per successful application.
If you are interested in applying, please contact Linda Miles to schedule a project consultation at milesli3@msu.edu.