The Open Education Research & Planning Mini-Grant supports faculty in making informed, student-centered decisions about course materials. This award is not for choosing OER. It is for engaging in a rigorous, open-minded discovery process and documenting what you find. We don’t believe in “open or nothing.” We believe in what best serves learners.
1. Attend two 60-minute virtual cohort workshops plus roughly four hours of independent work.
We begin by grounding ourselves in the essentials of open educational resources. Participants will explore what OER is and isn’t, learn the basics of copyright and Creative Commons, and practice searching for materials. We’ll also introduce simple ways to track and organize discoveries for later evaluation. Discuss department landscape.
Two weeks later, we reconvene to move from discovery into direction. Building on what was found, participants will practice evaluating OER, learn how Creative Commons licenses interact, and explore what can be done with OER once adopted. We’ll also provide support in drafting a short landscape brief to capture options, gaps, and possible next steps.
2. Use suggested templates and strategies to run a focused scan for one course.
3. Synthesize your findings into an OER Landscape Brief that maps options and gaps and outlines next steps that make sense for your context.
This brief will:
These briefs will be compiled into an ongoing, openly published series to support future faculty in building on existing research.
4. Earn four Trailblazers educator badges upon attendance and submission: Explorer, Investigator, Pathfinder, and Strategist.
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Faculty members interested in participating in this mini-grant opportunity should fill out the application form, by the application due date in the table above.
How clearly does the applicant describe their willingness to carry out the OER landscape research with an open mind, even if the outcome is that OER isn’t the right fit for their course?
Application Question: What motivates you to explore the OER landscape for your course or topic? How will you approach this research process with curiosity and an open mind, even if OER may not turn out to be the right fit?
Rubric
Whether the applicant can thoughtfully anticipate student benefits that might emerge from the research, including the possibility that OER is not the immediate answer.
Application Question: Looking ahead, what kind of student outcomes would you hope to influence by exploring the OER landscape for this course or topic? Consider learning experience, access, equity, engagement, or other impacts. If OER is not the right fit now, how might your findings still benefit students?
Rubric
Willingness and readiness to extend impact after the brief, with openness to options and guidance. Not a fixed plan, but a sense of what feels realistic or appealing to them.
Application Question: After your Landscape Brief is published, we’ll offer support for sharing your findings with others. What kinds of follow-up feel most doable or meaningful to you? For example, you might give a short talk for your department, adapt your brief into a slide deck or mini-guide, co-author a short artifact with students, host a peer discussion, or pilot an assignment you’ll document. Which of these possibilities (or others you imagine) interest you most, and why?
Rubric
Score each 1–3.
Total Possible Score
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