University Libraries (UL) announced the launch of a non-monetary grant opportunity at its recent Open Educational Resources (OER) faculty event. The openTXST grant is an opportunity for faculty and staff to get support as they transform their projects or courses into experiences based on OER. Applications are currently being accepted through Friday, April 14th.
Consideration will be given to projects or courses that incorporate the following components:
- Open Pedagogy – Open Pedagogy gives students agency to direct their own learning, and empowers them to engage with the academic, civil, and digital world by sharing what they’ve learned in new and creative ways
- Alignment with student success initiatives
- Projects that offer unique opportunities at Texas State
More information on the openTXST grant can be found in the FAQ section of our open education web page.
The grant announcement was made following the Open Educational Resources & Student Success Workshop co-sponsored by UL and OpenStax. Event attendees learned more about Open Education Initiatives at Texas State, how to find open educational resources (OER) like OpenStax books and their ancillary resources, and what transforming their course with these materials might look like.
This session started off with an introduction by Jess Williams, UL’s assistant director of teaching & learning. She outlined what has been made possible by the previous work done at Texas State, and moved into the importance and relationship between open education and student success. This was followed by a general overview of open education resources available at Texas State, including Pressbooks, by Open Educational Resource (OER) Librarian Isabelle Antes. Copyright and Open Access Initiatives Librarian Stephanie Towery provided context regarding open licensing and the flexibility available for faculty, staff, and students when developing open educational resources.
Dr. Natalie Allen of OpenStax, facilitated the main session. She addressed the relevance of OER, and walked attendees through the process of pulling materials from within the OpenStax platform to create material that can be customized to a course in a way that uniquely supports Texas State students.
UL would like to thank Dr. Allen and OpenStax, as well as all of the excited and engaged attendees. You can find additional UL workshops and events covering Open Education and Open Access with the OPENtxst label on the Alkek Events Calendar, and we hope you attend the upcoming Open Education Week events scheduled during the week of March 6th –10th.
This article was contributed by OER Librarian Isabelle Antes.