Libraries Announce 2019 Open Education Initiative Grant Recipients

The UMass Amherst Libraries recently announced the recipients of the 2019 Open Education Initiative (OEI) grants. Ten faculty members received funding for projects to revise or create open educational resources (OER) defined as teaching materials released with open licenses that allow authors to retain the copyright to their work, while simultaneously granting others permission to revise, remix and share it.

The Open Education Initiative at UMass Amherst aims to:
 

• Lower the cost of college for students in order to contribute to their retention, progression, and graduation.
• Encourage the development of alternatives to high-cost textbooks by supporting the adoption, adaptation or creation of OER.
• Provide support to faculty to implement these approaches.
• Encourage faculty to engage in new pedagogical models for classroom instruction. 

This year’s winners represent a broad range of disciplines across campus, including Jonathan Hulting-Cohen, Music and Dance, who plans to create an openly-licensed hybrid text/workbook for saxophone technique; Danielle Thomas, Spanish, who is compiling 10 years’ worth of teaching materials into an Advanced Spanish Grammar textbook; and Torrey Trust, Education, who will co-author a textbook with her Teaching and Learning with Technology (EDU 593A) students.

A full list of winners at https://www.library.umass.edu/oer/open-education-initiative/.

Now in its tenth cycle, the Open Education Initiative has generated a total savings of over $1.8 million for students in UMass Amherst classes that utilize OER or free library materials. The libraries partner with the Institute for Teaching Excellence and Faculty Development (TEFD), Instructional Innovation and Provost’s Office to support these efforts.