Open Educational Resources (OER)

How to Apply

Components of Application

AggieOpen encourages potential applicants to contact the review team (aggieopen@ucdavis.edu) prior to the submission deadline for assistance in project development. Librarians are available for consultation to help identify openly licensed resources for adoption or adaptation.

• Instructor information (name, position, department, etc.)
• Course information (enrollment, number of sections, etc.)
• Project information:

  • What is the nature of the open materials you plan to incorporate into your course (open textbook, open access monograph, etc.)?  

  • What modifications will be needed for the existing materials (if any), and/or what new material will need to be created to fill in missing content?

  • What challenges or barriers do you anticipate in transitioning from your current course materials to openly licensed resources? If applicable, discuss any internal approval required within your department.

  • What are the potential benefits to students in this course if you transition to open educational materials? If applicable, discuss any plans to involve students in the development of open educational resources.

  • How does the project advance diversity, equity, inclusion, social justice, and/or a sense of belonging for students from historically marginalized populations?

Apply for the AggieOpen Fellows Pilot Program

Review Process

Applications will be reviewed by members of the AggieOpen Steering Committee for alignment with the objectives of the AggieOpen program. Reviewers will include library representatives, students, faculty and instructors. 

Priority funding will be given to projects that: 

• impact students in a General Education course or other high-enrollment courses; 
• projects that engage students in the content creation process; 
• and/or those which address curriculum or content gaps in existing openly licensed educational materials.

Award distribution 

Funds will be distributed in two installments. Fellows will receive part of the award upon completion of the cohort activities in Spring Quarter of 2023. The remainder of the award will be distributed upon submission of the Final Report after the faculty or instructors teach using the openly-licensed materials in their course(s).

Support from the Library 

Fellows Cohort

Successful applicants will be part of a cohort. There will be four synchronous meetings in the Spring Quarter for fellows to showcase their projects and discuss issues related to their work with the cohort. Fellows will also be asked to participate in an asynchronous course module related to open licensing use and attribution, inclusive learning and accessibility standards for open educational resources. 

Consultation

Fellows will have access to Librarians and the Scholarly Communications Officer for assistance with finding OER materials for their curriculum, identifying appropriately licensed media (images, video, etc.), and the use of Creative Commons licensing.

Program Deliverables

• Revised syllabus: fellows will identify where updates will need to be made to reading assignments, homework, discussion questions, etc.
• Assessment plan: fellows will identify an assessment strategy (whether a feedback survey, focus group, or course performance metrics) to assess the impact of OER materials on student educational experience.
• Project workflow: fellows will identify tasks, steps, and a timeline for implementation and assessment.
• Fellowship reflection: fellows will also be asked to provide a short testimonial to share their experience of adopting or adapting open resources with the wider UC Davis community for a library newsletter article or blog post.

Final Report

The final report will be a brief document including the following:

1. The number of students enrolled in the course and summary of usage across sections, including how the material was accessed by students.
2. Results from assessments that describe the impact on learning or feedback from students on the value of the OER materials as an educational resource or tool in the course.
3. A discussion of your future plans. Will you use the open textbook or other materials again?  Why or why not?
4. A statement explaining what worked as well or better than expected and, conversely, what did not work as expected. 

Fellowship Timeline

Winter Quarter

Submission + Fellows Selection

• Call for Applications - January 9, 2023 - February 19, 2023 
• Fellows are notified on Monday, March 27, 2023

Spring Quarter

OER Project Development 

Fellows will be asked to complete a self-paced, asynchronous online learning module that will scaffold their OER project workflow development. Expect to spend ~10 hours participating in the cohort, with time spent reviewing the asynchronous content + 1 hour for synchronous cohort meetings. Our learning module is intended to assist fellows in navigating copyright and open licensing attribution; inclusive course design and applying accessibility standards; and identifying tools for curating and distributing OER.

Fellows Cohort (in-person or via Zoom) meetings* 

• Meeting 1: Tackling curricular revisions to bring students into the OER ecosystem- Friday, April 14th
• Meeting 2: Implementing inclusive course materials - Friday, April 28th
• Meeting 3: Assessing impacts and creating channels for feedback - Friday, May 12th
• Meeting 4: Project roundtable and next-steps - Friday, May 26th

*Cohort meeting dates/time may be subject to change to fit Fellows' availability

• Revised course syllabus, assessment plan, and project workflow due June 15, 2023

AY 2023-2024

Implementation & Final Report 

• OER materials will be implemented for coursework delivered in Summer 2023; Fall 2023; Winter 2024; or Spring 2024.
• The Final Report will be due 12 weeks (1 academic quarter) after the conclusion of the course.