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Libraries Offer Open Education Initiative Grants

Events

Open Education Resources graphic

Published January 20, 2025

Smith College Libraries have launched the 2025/26 Open Education Initiative (OEI) Grant Awards. These grants provide funding for instructors to adopt or review Open Educational Resources (OER), teaching materials released with an open license that allow for their free revision and redistribution with attribution to the creator of the original work.

Upcoming workshop: How to save students money and improve your pedagogy with OERs, January 23rd 1:00pm on Zoom. Register online.

Alternative Materials Grant

The Alternative Materials grants provide funding for instructors to adopt Open Educational Resources for their required course materials. ​​The goal of the Alternative Materials Grant is to encourage instructional innovation and enhance the scholarship of teaching and learning at Smith College by providing instructors with the time and resources they need to redesign their courses around the use of OER while lowering the cost of college for students. This is a competitive grant in the amount of $1000 per course.

Eligibility: Any primary instructor of record for Smith College credit-bearing undergraduate or graduate courses is eligible for these awards to be used in Fall 2025 or Spring 2026 semesters.

Alternative Materials Grant Application Criteria Rubric [Google doc]

Expectations: All Alternative Materials Grant recipients must:

  • Attend OER an information workshop or schedule a consultation.
  • Complete projects and use resources in a credit-bearing course Fall or Spring semester of the 2024/25 academic year.
  • In-class brief focus group facilitated by the OER Team to quantitatively assess student perspective of OER use in the course.
  • Submit a brief report [Google doc] reflecting on the experience of using open/alternative textbook and the outcomes after the first semester of implementation.
  • Provide a copy of the revised syllabus or course outline used for the class for possible inclusion in Smith ScholarWorks.

Application for Alternative Materials Grant [Google form]

Adapt OER

If you are interested in adapting an OER please reach out to Scholarly Communications Librarian, Jessica Ryan for information.

Application for Adaptions of OER [Google form]

Open Educational Resources Review Grant

The OER Review grant incentive provides funding to instructors to review an OER for inclusion in the Open Textbook Library. The goal of the OER Review grant is to encourage use, awareness, and to participate in the public good of improving assessment and quality of OERs. Upon completion, the first ten faculty members will receive $250 for their review.

For more information about the grants, see the OER Grant Opportunities page on our OER subject guide.

Contact

Jessica Ryan, Scholarly Communications Librarian: scholarworks@smith.edu