Affordable Course Materials & OER Initiative
About this program
The UCI Libraries are launching the Affordable Course Materials and OER Initiative. The initiative provides funding for instructors to adopt, adapt, or create low-cost or free alternatives to expensive traditional textbooks and access codes. Priority funding will be given to projects that impact large numbers of students.
UCI Libraries financial incentives and guidance aim to eliminate barriers and increase the use of library licensed, or owned, materials including OER adoption. Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning and research materials in any medium – digital or otherwise – that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions (UNESCO definition). OER form part of ‘Open Solutions,’ alongside Free and Open Source software (FOSS), Open Access (OA), Open Data (OD) and crowdsourcing platforms.
Objectives
Financial Support
For UCI instructors of record and to incentivize the implementation of affordable course materials including Open Education Resources
Awareness via Creation & Use
Increase awareness around the use and creation of OER amongst instructors via the UCI Libraries initiative.
Cost Savings
Yield an average cost savings of 35% per prospective course that adopts either an existing OER or affordable solution, or newly created OER.
Bolster Course Reserves
Add more print textbooks and other physical materials to our Course Reserve system.
Eligibility
Please email oer@uci.edu for pre-submission consultation and include course name, number and current material cost. Each applicant must be the instructor of record. Courses can be at the undergraduate or graduate level.
Applications are handled in the order they are received. Notification of application status (proceeding or rejection) will be distributed to applicants within 4 weeks or less of completed application receipt.
Process
After initial consultation, applicants are asked to complete an application form. These are reviewed by a small committee to assess alignment with the initiative's objectives and to determine if the course is best served through this or other services and initiatives.
Each awardee will be asked to attend a one-hour workshop at which Library staff members introduce search strategies for possible open-access or low cost instructional resources and brainstorm opportunities. Awardees will be paired with a subject area librarian, who will work personally one-on-one to assist with individual projects.
The initiative will fund $1,500 for each course which undergoes this transformative process. Additional funds may be designated to build and create OER material.
Deadlines
Application window is open. We will update this site as needed.
For Further Information
Please see the Affordable Course Materials and Open Educational Resources (OER) for Faculty guide. Review the UCI Libraries Event Calendar for our Quarterly OER Information Sessions.
For Faculty
First step is to email oer@uci.edu to confirm eligibility.
Each awardee will be asked to attend a one-hour workshop at which Library staff members introduce search strategies for possible open-access or low cost instructional resources and brainstorm opportunities. Awardees will be paired with a subject area librarian, who will work personally one-on-one to assist with individual projects. At the conclusion of each awarded course, the instructor is asked to complete an assessment in order to determine the initiative’s pedagogical and financial impact.
Since there are varying levels of OER which can co-exist in the same course. We value proposals that:
- Leverage library-owned resources to replace costly course materials.
- Convert to open resources.
- Create an OER that centers DEI.
Please note:
- There is a rolling deadline (as funding permits).
- Submitted application does not guarantee approval.
- Financial support will be dispersed to associated research accounts.
- Initiative-supported learning objects will be marketed and promoted.
For Students
Open Textbook Alliance is a nationwide project of the Student PIRGs (UCI CALPIRG) uniting student leaders who are working to bring open textbooks to college campuses and protect students in the textbook market. Learn more about strategy with the Making Textbooks Affordable Toolkit.
In part, this initiative is linked to the push for more grant programs to incentivize faculty to use and create open educational resources (OER) at the UC's.
Review Examples of Research Focused OER
Choosing and Using Sources covers topics like developing research questions, understanding types of sources, searching for information, evaluating sources, and avoiding plagiarism. Each chapter includes self-quizzes and activities to reinforce core concepts and help you apply them.
Introduction to College Research includes chapters about algorithms, disinformation, fact-checking, search strategies, using library databases, ethical and legal use of information, citing sources, and much, much more.
UC Support for ACM & OER
- The UC student body is asking for more open textbooks (2020-2021 UCSA Support for a Grant-Funded Program for Open Textbooks at the UCs).
- US PIRG and Inside HigherEd reported surveyed respondents are driven to OER during pandemic and recession.
- Council of University Librarians (CoUL), created a new goal for Advancing Affordable Course Materials at UC, July 9, 2021.
Learn More
Please see the list below on subject area OER's available and OER informational courses to learn more. Also see the Affordable Course Materials and Open Educational Resources (OER) for Faculty guide, and review the UCI Libraries Event Calendar for our Quarterly OER Information Sessions.
| Name | Link |
|---|---|
| Textbooks by Subject from UMass | https://libguides.uml.edu/facultyguide/textbooks_subject |
| OER by Discipline from West LA College | https://libguides.wlac.edu/open-educational-resources |
| OER Collections/Repositories/Images from Michigan State University | https://libguides.lib.msu.edu/oer/findOER |
| Collections by Subject from Furman University | https://libguides.furman.edu/oer/subject |
| OER Search Basics from Fort Hays State University | https://fhsuguides.fhsu.edu/OERs/searchbasics |
| LibreTexts Bookshelf | https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves |
| MERLOT | https://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm |
| UCI Open | http://open.uci.edu/courses |
Please find a sample of Learning Modules below to explore more about Open Educational Resources.
- Academic Senate for California Community Colleges - OER Basics (2022) Canvas Course
- University of Washington - Getting Started with Open Educational Resources (2020) Canvas Course
- SUNY OER Community Course on Lumen Learning - Understanding OER (2018)
- Open Washington OER Network - Some training modules (2017) on OER basics
Examples of Affordable Course Material & OER Textbooks
There are a variety of formats and options for OER course material, please see some of the searchable resources in the Learn More section and our guide. Below find a few of the open eTextbook platforms and examples of material available.
OpenStax, a publisher of high-quality, peer-reviewed, openly licensed college textbooks, has a 2nd Edition of the Psychology eTextbook available. Review the Memory section 8.2: Parts of the Brain Involved with Memory.
LibreTexts, non-profit organization committed to freeing the textbook from the limitations and costs of traditional textbooks, catalog has an eTextbook for Elementary Statistics for the Behavioral and Social Sciences:
PressBooks, a platform for eTextbooks (which UCI has a current license), review the Algorithmic Bias section from an library information literacy title Introduction to College Research - OR - review the Antimicrobial Basics 3.2 from Nursing Pharmacology.
Open Textbook Library, now offering nearly a thousand open textbooks, is supported by the Open Education Network, find the Electrical Engineering Textbooks from TU Delft Netherlands Introduction to Aerospace Structures and Materials.
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Examples of Affordable Course Materials via UCI Libraries-Licensed Resources:
- Soc239 library licensed DRM-Free version Changing race: Latinos, the census, and the history of ethnicity in the United States
- Int175A/Soc170B Never-ending war on terror.
- Hist70D via Cambridge Higher Education Latin America in Colonial Times