Grant Overview

CT OER Grant Program

The CT OER Grant Program is designed to strategically support Connecticut higher education institutions' efforts to increase access, affordability, and achievement for students through the incorporation of OER.  This grant program will focus on OER opportunities in "high impact" areas - courses with high enrollment and high textbook costs for which high-quality OER already exists.  

High Impact Areas

In 2019, the CT OER Coordinating Council surveyed Connecticut's higher education institutions to determine the courses areas statewide that had the highest enrollments and highest associated textbook costs. The following lists the Top 22 course areas identified (with associated CIP Code designation). 

Categories of Award


1. Review  – Evaluate an openly-licensed textbook or other open content related to your course(s)/ discipline and write a review for public display. Where possible, student involvement in the review is strongly encouraged.

2. Adoption – Adopt an existing open textbook or open course content with little to no changes made to the content. Applications should detail the work involved in the proposed OER adoption and the resulting benefits to students. Where possible, student involvement is strongly encouraged. This is for an individual faculty member seeking to transform their course by adopting OER materials - $1,000 stipend

3. Supplemental – Develop missing ancillaries for currently adopted OER such as quiz question banks, lecture slides, or lab manuals. Applications should include information on the need for the proposed supplements and the resulting benefits to students.  Where possible, student involvement is strongly encouraged. This is for an individual faculty member seeking to substantively supplement their adopted OER materials - $1,250 stipend (For applicants requesting non-stipend funds, please provide a detailed budget in the application).

4. Impact – For proposals to create OER and for collaborative, large scale proposals not covered by the categories above that demonstrate a high impact on student success using OER. Cross-institutional collaborative proposals as well as student involvement are strongly encouraged. This award type requires a detailed budget as part of the application. Examples include (but are not limited to):

* Awards may be subject to standard payroll deductions.


Eligibility


The CT OER Grant Program is open to all eligible faculty from Connecticut institutions of higher education.

The awards are targeted for "high-impact" courses (as defined above). Proposals may be submitted in other disciplines, provided the course(s) meet the definition of high impact relative to their institution.

Eligible applications must demonstrate that students enrolled in the high-impact course(s) will realize direct savings as a result of the current or future use of the OER.

Awardees must teach the OER-enabled course(s) during the grant period.  Review grants are exempted from this requirement.

Applicants will be required to attest (within the application) that they have received permission from their institution, and that they are not already receiving compensation (grants, release, sabbatical) for the proposed work. Any related funding should complement but not duplicate funding for work proposed in this grant.

Requirements

Adoption, Supplemental, and Impact Grants all have some similar components, such as:

To view the full CT OER Grant requirements, please visit the link below.