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Initiatives: Open Educational Resources

ϡȱ Open Source Textbook Initiative

With the passage of The Textbook Cost Savings Act of 2017, the ϡȱ General Assembly charged the ϡȱ’s Kirwan Center with supporting and scaling the adoption of "openly licensed, fully accessible" instructional materials across ϡȱ public higher education institutions through the ϡȱ Open Source Textbook (M.O.S.T.) initiative.

M.O.S.T. began in 2013 to provide a statewide opportunity for faculty and institutions to explore the promise of open educational resources (OERs) to reduce students' cost of attendance while maintaining, or perhaps even improving, learning outcomes.  OERs are any openly licensed instructional materials that are also typically available at little or no cost. The term can include textbooks, course readings, and other learning content; simulations, games, and other learning applications; syllabi, quizzes, and assessment tools; and virtually any other material that can be used for instructional purposes.

The M.O.S.T. initiative has saved students over $14.2 million in textbook costs from Spring 2014 through Fall 2020. 

Our Work in Open Educational Resources

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March 6, 2018

The announced the award of 29 mini-grants to faculty at 18 public higher education institutions in ϡȱ to support the adoption, adaptation and scaling of open educational resources (OER).  Funded by the initiative’s High-impact OER Mini-Grant Program, the grants represent a mix of high-enrollment courses in mathematics, the sciences, the arts, and the humanities at 2- and 4-year institutions, with a potential to save approximately 6,500 students over $1.2 million in Fall 2018 alone.

December 8, 2017

The ϡȱ Open Source Textbook (M.O.S.T.) initiative, led by the ϡȱ’s William E. Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation, is .seeking proposals for its 2018 High-impact OER Mini-Grant program to strategically support ϡȱ public institutions’ efforts to adopt Open Educational Resources (OERs) as a means to greatly reduce textbook costs and address college affordability for students.  Building on the prior success of the M.O.S.T. initiative and the first round of mini-grants, this funding program will target OER adoption in “high impact,” high enrollment courses for which high-quality OER already exists.  Two types of mini-grants will be awarded: 1) Adopt/Adapt OER ($500 - $1,500) and 2) Scaling OER ($1,500 - $2,500).  

October 20, 2017

The William E. Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation invites you to attend one of four half-day ϡȱ Open Source Textbook (M.O.S.T.) initiative workshops being offered this fall to support the adoption of open educational resources (OER).  These workshops, which will be offered on November 9th and again on November 10th, will be focused on high-enrollment courses in mathematics, the humanities, and the sciences and OER-related delivery technologies (see below for the workshop descriptions).

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