Open Educational Resources (OER)

The NWACC Open Grant application period opens on April 1st and is due by May 5th. Contact the OER Committee with any questions. 

The NWACC OER Committee administers NWACC OPEN, the OER conversion faculty incentive program. The main goal of the program is to encourage faculty to convert course materials to Open Educational Resources (OER) by providing a small incentive for adopting, revising, or creating an OER.

NWACC OPEN incentivizes faculty adoption of OER course materials that adhere to open licenses, and are free and openly licensed educational materials. The adoption of OER benefits the institution by decreasing the barriers of affordability and accessibility. OER reduce the financial burden of education and ensure student access to the course materials from day one. OER adoption allows faculty to tailor the material to their course while increasing social responsibility. OER enable sharing through different types of open licenses that allow materials to be used, reused, revised, improved, and shared.

Eligibility 

• Both full-time and adjunct teaching faculty are eligible to apply for funding.
• Faculty must commit to using the OER for at least four semesters.
• Faculty must commit to making materials funded by this program available to others by using one of the six Creative Commons Licenses and at minimum, the materials must be placed in NWACCs LMS.
• Faculty may submit multiple applications for different courses.

Open Licensing

There are six Creative Commons licenses (CC licenses) to license OER content and to allow others to use it.  CC BY and CC BY-SA licenses make OER free, remixable, and reusable if the user credits the creator. Learn more about CC Licenses here. 

Application Categories

Category 1: Adoption of Existing OER Material

Faculty search, select, and adopt an existing open educational resource such as textbooks, online videos, or learning modules, thereby eliminating the need for students to purchase proprietary course materials. Adopted OER materials are minimally changed.

The Adoption category requires the

• identification of existing OER materials that would be suitable for the course under consideration.
• review of those materials to ensure they are in line with course outcomes and student success and have the quality and rigor to maintain the integrity of the course.
• adoption of the OER by switching from a traditional proprietary textbook to OER course materials within our learning management system.
• creation of ancillary materials such as test banks, PowerPoints, and quizzes.

The maximum incentive for adoption is $1000 per course. For courses with multiple OER grant applications, faculty should work together. The OER committee shall determine the amount granted to each applicant.

Category 2: Revision or Remix of Existing OER Material and Creating New Supplement Material

Faculty develop a new version of an existing OER by revising and remixing an existing OER. The process may include editing chapters, adding new materials from other open sources, removing sections not appropriate, bringing together several openly licensed sources, and creating ancillary materials to suit the course requirements.

The Revise/Remix category requires the

• identification of available existing OER materials.
• revising, remixing, or creating new text for the course.
• adoption of the OER by switching from a traditional proprietary textbook to OER course materials within our learning management system.
• creation of ancillary materials such as test banks, PowerPoints, and quizzes.
• dissemination of the newly revised and remixed OER material using one of the many OER repository platforms.

Revision or remix should account for a minimum of 20-25% of new OER written by the faculty. The revised and remixed OER materials must constitute a significant part of the course materials and not course support resources (like test banks and PowerPoint).

The maximum incentive for the revise/remix category is $2000 per course. If there are multiple applications for varying OER for a particular course, then it is encouraged that these Faculty work together. The OER committee will determine the amount granted for each application.

Category 3: Creation of an OER textbook, book, or edited volume

Faculty create an entirely new OER product and supporting resources for use in their courses. Supporting resources may include PowerPoint, test banks, class activities, writing assignments, simulations, polls, and other teaching resources to assist an instructor in using the book for an in-person or online class.  The book must include 70-80% of new content written by the faculty member.

The maximum incentive for creation is $3000 per course. 

Category 4: OER Champion

Faculty create a lesson module or pedagogical resource that is licensed with a Creative Commons license; thus, the object that faculty create is an OER. The lesson module contains all the materials to teach a course topic, either online, in-person, or asynchronous. The pedagogical resource may be an assignment with all the accompanying resources for the student. The object should be implemented in a course by the Spring 2025 semester. The lesson module or pedagogical resource will be placed into a repository for other faculty to access and use at the completion of this process.

The award amount for this category is $250.

Application Process

The NWACC OER committee will determine the number of applications approved and awarded in each round based on the quality of the application, the commitment to OER, expansion to other sections, the total impact on students, and the amount of funding available. They will screen all applications and inform applicants of the decision. All applications must be approved by the division dean before submission. Applications selected for funding will be forwarded to the VP of Learning for final approval. 

Evaluation Criteria

Faculty are required to use one of the OER evaluation criteria:

• Analysis of anticipated cost savings to students.
• Replacement of proprietary course material with openly licensed course materials either adopted, remixed, or created.
• Inclusion of the OER materials within the NWACC’s LMS.
• Sharing of the remixed OER (category 2) in one of the many OER repository platforms
• ADA compliance and availability of a print option.
• Completion of an OER implementation survey
• Administration of a student OER use survey.
• Enrollment size of the course.

Requirements For Awardees

If awarded, awardees will commit to the following:

• Attend a kick-off training/implementation meeting designed to help finalize project implementation plans, share best practices, and address barriers to success.
• Participate in an OER workshop or a one-on-one consultation session designed to help faculty find appropriate OER that they can adopt, revise, remix and understand open licenses. 
• Submit a mid-project status report to the OER committee.
• Successfully implement proposed plan and meet student cost saving goals.
• Providing all work produced under one of the six Creative Commons licenses. The OER committee can assist in securing a Creative Commons license.