NOTE: This SFU Open Educational Resources (OER) Grants program ran from 2016-2019, and has now ended.

Please see the website for the new SFU Open Education Grants Program Pilot (Spring 2022) for information about current funding and support for open education projects on campus: https://www.sfu.ca/istld/faculty/grant-programs/oeg.html

Past Program Application Information

Steps

1. Review the information below.
2. Complete the application form.
3. Submit the completed form by the deadline.
   

Application

Grants of up to $5,000 will be provided. The intent of these grants is to enable faculty members teaching credit courses to receive support in the identification, curation, customization and integration of open textbooks or other open educational resources (OER) into their courses. Staff from the SFU Library and the Centre for Educational Excellence (CEE) will provide in-kind contributions to selected projects. Faculty members, individually or jointly, as well as course teams may submit grant proposals.

Eligibility

Continuing or limited-term full-time faculty appointments (including tenured and tenure-track faculty, lecturers and limited-term faculty appointments of one year or more) at Simon Fraser University may receive an Open Educational Resources Grant. The intent is to distribute funds to maximize direct benefit to a wide range of student learners and inquiry across a diversity of disciplines.

Eligible expenses

• Support for SFU student research assistants
• Support for persons with a particular expertise/skill set not found in the Library or CEE
• Development of data collection instruments and support for data collection and analysis
• Travel for dissemination of findings not to exceed 20% of total award

Expectations of grant recipients

• Development of a project plan with a team comprised of SFU Library staff, CEE staff and others as appropriate
• Participation in an initial project team meeting as well as a mid-term check-in meeting
• Participation in evaluating the implementation of OERs, including impact on student learning
• Agreement that the end product course materials will be openly licensed (e.g., using Creative Commons licenses) and freely accessible online (e.g., using Summit, SFU’s institutional repository)
• Completion of a final report (template provided)
• Sharing of experience with interested colleagues at SFU events or through communications activities (e.g., OER panel, news stories, websites, etc.) arranged by the SFU Library and/or the CEE

In-kind contributions from Library and CEE staff

Grant recipients will benefit from the expertise of:

• Liaison librarians who can assist with finding and evaluating suitable open textbooks or other subject-based OER
• Educational media specialists who may assist with finding and adapting open educational media resources (videos, graphics, etc.)
• Educational consultants who can be consulted on course design and OER assessment
• Learning technology specialists who may assist with integrating OER into Canvas, or with instructor or student customization of materials
• Copyright librarians and other library staff who can advise on the application of open licenses and sharing final course materials via Summit, SFU’s institutional repository

Evaluation criteria

Proposals will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

• The extent to which they include curation and customization of open educational resources that will be freely and openly shared throughout and beyond SFU
• Their potential impact on student experience in the form of high-quality materials, maximum access (e.g., Creative Commons licenses), innovative and open pedagogy, and cost savings to students
• The inclusion of plans to re-use open educational resources in courses in subsequent semesters