LibGuides: Open Educational Resources at RTC: OER Mini-Grant

Apply for an OER Mini-Grant: Background

The OER Mini-Grant was created to accelerate the growing number of instructors using OER at Renton Technical College and lower textbook costs for students. This grant aims to support faculty development through the use of new and innovative resources in the classroom. The goal of the program is to encourage instructional innovation and enhance the scholarship of teaching and learning at Renton Technical College by providing instructors with the time and resources they need to redesign their courses around the use of OER.

OER are defined as “educational materials that are free of cost and access barriers, and which also carry legal permission for open use.” This includes any course materials (textbooks, lab books, course notes, slide sets, videos, and more) released under an open license. Examples of OER currently in use at Renton Technical College can be see on our OER Heroes page.

If you are interested, please review this page fully and fill out the application, which will open on November 9, 2022 and will close on November 30, 2022.

Recipients will be notified no later than December 8, 2022 if they have been accepted. Based on the number of applicants and award levels, we MAY choose to consider additional applications past the original deadline, as funds allow.

Who is Eligible to Apply?

To be considered for this grant, proposals must meet the following criteria:

The proposal is submitted by one or more Renton Technical College employees with teaching responsibilities.
The proposal includes the intent to use an Open Educational Resource in a credit-bearing course.
Instructors may only submit one proposal per academic year.

This grant may NOT be used for:

The adaptation or creation of a resource for commercial publication (resource must be accompanied by a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License).

Award Levels

Award Level	Award Range	Expectations
Option A: Content Creation	$2000	Create an original Open Educational Resource for your course. This project must produce an OER that would replace a commercial resource that's currently used or has been used in the past for the course.
Option B: Multi-Section Integration	$1000	Integrate Open Educational Resources into each module of a single, multi-section course.
Option C: Partial Integration	$500	Integrate Open Educational Resources into at least half of a single, multi-section course.
Option D: Quality Course Certification	$500	Instructor commits to having their OER course evaluated by C!TL team and making revisions to fulfill the WA Course Design Checklist. Stipend will also be accompanied by a state recognized badge.
Option E: Enhance Course Using Videos	$500	Upgrading course to include videos that have an open license. One of these options is to use our lightboard.
*PRESSBOOKS BONUS	$150	Grant recipients get an ADDITIONAL $150 for publishing their OER in a Pressbook, whether adapting the original OER into a Pressbook OR creating an OER directly in Pressbooks.

How Will Proposals Be Reviewed?

The proposals will be reviewed by the OER Steering Committee.

Evaluations will be based on the quality of applications as determined by the criteria of the Open Education Resources Grant Rubric.

*Rubric created by the Miller Open Education Mini-Grant Program at Iowa State University.

What are the Expectations of Grant Recipients?

Before	During	After
Meet with Di Zhang and/or Nizar Ali to discuss your project and the support available to help you complete it. Complete Open Washington OER Training (Modules 1-10) by January 13, 2023 if you haven't completed another approved OER training already. This self-paced training can take anywhere from 2-4 hours. Attend a cohort meeting in mid-January 2023 to meet other grantees and review expectations. Virtual and in-person options available.	Complete OER materials by the end of Winter 2023 (March 22, 2023) to be used in the Spring 2023 quarter in a credit-bearing course. Publish OER created through a grant in an open, editable format and submit this OER to Di Zhang (dzhang@rtc.edu) and Nizar Ali (nali@rtc.edu) through email by June 22, 2023, 11:59 pm. Let us know as soon as possible if you need an adjusted timeline. Submit a report on the grant's outcomes by June 22, 2022, 11:59 pm. Publish OER created through the grant under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.	Showcase outcomes of the project on the RTC OER Heroes page. Join other grantees to share experiences by providing a brief presentation of your project in 2023, date TBD.