Library OER grant

Library OER Program Evaluation Report

Library OER grant recipients and projects, 2020-2024 

Purpose 

The Library will award up to $7,500 per project to support the use of open educational resources in courses at the University of Ottawa. Two types of grants are available:  

• Adaptation of an existing OER (up to $6,000): To identify and customize an existing OER to better align with a uOttawa course. It includes translation, localization, updates, or creating supporting materials.
• Creation of a new OER (up to $7,500): To create a new OER for a uOttawa course in an area or on a topic that lacks free resources. 

Recipients will be announced in late March 2024. 

Eligibility 

Members of the APUO, the APTPUO, and staff with instruction-related activities can submit a proposal. 

Student-led projects are also eligible. In that case, proposals must be submitted by a faculty sponsor (an APUO or APTPUO member) responsible for the project. 

Projects are only eligible to receive a single grant in any given year.  

Eligible expenses and conditions 

The grants may be used to pay students and professionals for research, writing, editing, translation, copy editing, graphic design, and audio or video recording services.  

The following expenses are NOT eligible:  

• Registration and travel costs for conferences
• Article processing charges (APC) to publish in open access
• Incentives to participate in an assessment of the OER
• Stipends for contributing to the OER
• Promotion and marketing of the OER (beyond support offered by the Library)
• Course release or any other form of remuneration for the project lead  

Proposals must describe how the funds will be used and justify each expense in the projected budget, as well as provide a brief job description for all salaried positions. Funding will only be granted for specific approved expenses and supporting documentation/receipts should be retained by grant recipients upon making use of the funds. 

Funds will be made available no later than April 30, 2024 and should be used by grant recipients by April 30, 2025. Upon completion of the project or on May 1, 2025, whichever is earlier, any unspent portion of the grant funds will be reverted to the University of Ottawa Library.  

Evaluation criteria 

The following types of projects are especially encouraged: 

1. French-language OER (given the significant gap in the availability of OER in that language)
2. OER to be used in a high-enrolment course
3. OER that can be used in multiple courses or sections of a course 

Applications will be evaluated using a rubric for each grant category. Criteria include: 

• Applicant's demonstrated understanding of open principles  
• Impact and benefit to uOttawa students, including but not limited to cost savings
• Evidence of need for an OER on proposed topic
• Feasibility of the project considering:
  • Scope
  • Timeline
  • Budget 

Download the evaluation rubrics for each grant category: 

• OER adaptation 2024
• OER creation 2024

Download Tips for applicants 2024

Selection process 

Proposals will be reviewed by selection committees composed of faculty members, instructors, librarians, previous grantees, student representatives, and staff from the Teaching and Learning Support Service (TLSS). 

All decisions are final and there is no appeal process. 

Expectations of grant recipients 

• Adhere to the principle of openness that is central to OER by making the resulting resource available under a Creative Commons licence that allows adaptations (i.e. CC BY, CC BY-SA, CC BY-NC, or CC BY-NC-SA)
• Indicate within their project that it was funded by a University of Ottawa Library OER Grant   
• Present their project at a future open education event organized by the University of Ottawa Library in 2024-2025
• Be financially responsible and accountable for the management of grant funds, including:
  • promptly informing the Library if the project deviates from the original proposal
  • responding to Library’s enquiries about project progression  
  • submitting supporting documentation/receipts upon request
  • returning any unspent grant amounts upon completion of the project or on May 1, 2025, whichever is earlier
• Submit a project status report by November 1, 2024 and a final report by June 1, 2025 (report templates will be provided)
• Agree to the conditions outlined in the Library OER Grant Agreement before accessing the funds 

Non-financial support 

The Library will assist grant recipients with locating existing OER, copyright compliance and licensing, using the Pressbooks digital authoring platform and H5P Studio (provided by eCampusOntario), and making the resulting resource discoverable at uOttawa and beyond (including in uO Research and eCampusOntario’s Open Library). 

Recipients are also encouraged to consult with experts at the Teaching and Learning Support Service for support related to university pedagogy, online instructional design, graphic design, user experience design, web programming and development, educational technologies, audio-visual and videoconferencing equipment, videography and video editing, and distance education. 

Questions

Three bilingual information sessions have been scheduled via the Teaching and Learning Support Service (TLSS):

• Thursday, December 14, 2023, 2:30 - 3:00 p.m.
• Wednesday, January 17, 2024, 1:00 - 1:30 p.m.
• Thursday, February 1, 2024, 11:00 - 11:30 a.m.

Sign up on the TLSS website.

To book a consultation for for questions about the grant program, contact the Open Education Librarian at [email protected] 

References

The Library OER grant documentation is adapted from the following sources:

Toronto Metropolitan University Library and Archive Open Educational Resources (OER) Grants
University of Alberta Centre for Teaching and Learning University of Alberta OER Grants
University of Ottawa Library Research Grant Program Operations and Procedures 
University of Regina OER Program Funded Grants 
University of Waterloo OER Fellows Grant Guidelines 
Western Libraries Open Educational Resources Grant and Support Program 

Unless otherwise noted, the content on this page is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence.