Applications will be accepted from current UTA faculty, staff, and students with teaching responsibilities or responsibilities for selecting and coordinating educational resources for UTA courses.
There is no limit to the number of times an individual may receive funding from the UTA CARES Grant program for different courses. Subsequent grant applications for a course that has already received funding will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Grant funding is intended to support the transition to low- or zero-cost course materials. Applications that cannot describe work that still needs to be completed will not be considered for funding.
All applicants must submit their application through Microsoft Forms. Before beginning an application, applicants should prepare the following documents:
More information about the requirements for each type of application is available in this guide.
This is a competitive grant award. Applications are reviewed by the UTA CARES Grant Review Committee, and the committee may ask applicants for more information in order to make their decisions. Highest preference will be given to projects that demonstrate a strong impact on course material affordability and/or that produce resources that provide a unique value to their field. Requests may not be funded in full. Application decisions will be shared within two months of the application deadline.
After an application is approved by the review committee, half of the total awarded amount will be paid via Interdepartmental Transfer upon completion of a memorandum of understanding between UTA Libraries and the grant recipient. Grant recipients are responsible for working with their departments to provide a local cost center and B-level account to transfer these funds. The cost center must begin with the number 3 (such as 310000) and must have a fund code of 3100 or 3105. Cost centers that begin with a 5 are usually endowed or special interest cost centers, and UTA Libraries cannot transfer funds to those cost centers. The remaining half of the funding will be transferred, also via Interdepartmental Transfer, at the end of the first semester of implementation following receipt of a final project report.
Grant funding may be used to pay expenses related to the project or sharing project outcomes. All projected expenses must be itemized in the project narrative. It is the responsibility of the grant recipient and their department to ensure that funds are spent in accordance with university policy. Possible uses of the funds include, but are not limited to:
The applicant may request salary support for any personnel who will be working on the project. Funding requests must cover both salary and fringe benefits for all project members. All budgets must be itemized, and salary and fringe must be listed separately for each person on the project team. The amount of time an individual will spend on the project is expressed as a percentage of their monthly salary or calendar months of effort.
If the proposed budget includes salary supplements for UTA employees classified as staff, the awardee’s department is required to obtain approval from the Provost to use the Authorization of Professional Services form before the MOU is signed.
Project applications must include a projected timeline of the work that needs to be completed, but the completion date for the project should be determined by the grantee. Most projects are ready to pilot beginning in the semester after funding is received, but after the first pilot semester, the grantee should assess their student feedback to determine how close the project is to completion. While all projects must pilot their resources for a minimum of one semester, we see many projects that are revised and re-piloted multiple times.
See the Support for Grantees page for more information.
Introduction to Pressbooks workshops are offered every semester. These workshops are required for all grant recipients whose projects will use Pressbooks. The Support for Grantees page lists upcoming workshop dates and times. An asynchronous online version of the workshop will be released in spring 2023.
The Libraries' Introduction to OER provides resources for getting started. Subject librarians and members of the OER team are available to assist applicants in locating OER or library-licensed content to replace current educational resources. Consultations are available by appointment.
Mavs Open Press does not provide proofreading or copyediting services. Expenses for these services may be included in the project's proposed budget.
Many OER are peer reviewed, though the review process varies. UTA CARES grantees are responsible for determining the level of peer review necessary for their work. The peer review process is not facilitated by Mavs Open Press, nor are peer reviewers compensated directly by Mavs Open Press. Applicants may request funding in their budget proposal to pay reviewers.
Open pedagogy is the practice of engaging with students as creators of information rather than simply consumers of it. It's a form of experiential learning in which students demonstrate understanding through the act of creation. Examples of open assignments are available on our Introduction to Open Pedagogy guide. Open pedagogy projects supported by the UTA CARES Grant Program must include a copyright education component for students. This may be accomplished in a variety of ways, including via a course presentation by a librarian.
Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. For details and exceptions, see the Library Copyright Statement.
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