Open Education Resources

Open Education Resources (OER) are freely accessible, openly licensed learning materials that can be adapted or re-used depending on instructor requirements. They increase the affordability of education for students and provide greater flexibility for instructors.

Over the last four years the library has acted on the recommendations of the Open and Affordable Course Materials Working Group with support from the Provost's Advisory Committee on Teaching and Learning to provide funding to facilitate the creation or adaptation of open educational resources at Queen's. To date seventeen open education resources have been funded and, according to the authors' estimates, approximately $630,000 of savings per year will be realized for Queen's students when these textbooks are completed.

The students who took my course last year were very excited to hear that we were developing a new text for the course. Students strongly support open-access educational resources. - Dr. Ryan Martin

For more details on the benefits of open education, please see OER Success Stories at Queen's.

2024 Call for Proposals

The annual call for proposals builds on the successful, funded projects of 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 to create Open Education Resources (OER).

These grants are designed to support the creation or adaptation of the primary educational resource for a course of study at Queen’s University such as textbooks, audio or video-based resources, interactive simulations, or instructional websites.

Course design and other ancillary materials (syllabi, test banks, assignments, slide decks, etc.) are not eligible. If you are unsure whether your project meets these criteria, please contact the Library.

Grants are available for either:

  • Creating a new Open Education Resource
    or
  • Adapting an existing Open Education Resource

for use in or support of an upcoming course or program at Queen's University.

Funding for these projects is provided by Queen’s University Library.

Eligibility

Applications are welcome from all faculty at Queen’s University and are particularly encouraged for large undergraduate courses, courses with high-cost traditional textbooks, and new or emerging disciplines or subjects.  

Grant funds must be used according to the Memorandum of Understanding with the library.  Please review these terms before submitting a proposal.

How to Apply

  1. Review the evaluation criteria and requirements for successful grant recipients.
  2. Submit your application. If you have any questions about the application process, email us a brief description of your idea and we will guide you through the next steps.

The deadline for proposals is Wednesday, April 10, 2024 at 11:59 p.m. EDT. 

Requirements for Successful Grant Recipients

Successful grant recipients will be required to:

  • Work with Open Education Resources project staff (including the library and other units on campus) to plan and sustain your new resource, including a timeline of deliverables and an impact assessment plan.
  • Integrate your new resource in an upcoming Queen’s course or program.
  • Share your new resource under an appropriate Creative Commons License (the recommended license is Creative Commons CC BY 4.0) so that others can easily create a new iteration of it and/or simply re-use it as-is, while always giving appropriate attribution to the copyright owner.
  • Publicize your work by providing project updates and participating in related events.   

To learn more, email an Open Scholarship specialist and visit Getting Started with OER.

In-kind Supports

These supports are offered by the library and are available for all projects:

  • Locating additional existing, open license resources
  • Explaining copyright and Creative Commons licensing, sourcing copyright permissions and conducting copyright reviews of materials included in funded OERs
  • Navigating the Pressbooks open publishing platform
  • Supporting metadata creation, repository deposit, ISBNs, and DOIs

More Information and Resources

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