Open and Affordable Course Materials

About the Awards
Selection Criteria
How to Apply
Conditions of the Award
Award Disbursement

The cost of textbooks has become a significant barrier to student success and learning. The goal of the ETSU Open and Affordable Awards Program is to encourage instructor experimentation and innovation in finding new, better, and less costly ways to deliver learning materials to their students through Open and Affordable course materials in ETSU classrooms. 

Awards are available for instructors and programs who plan on using, customizing, or creating open or affordable materials in their courses. Open in this context means free plus rights to retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute, which is generally accomplished through a Creative Commons license. Affordable in this context means using materials freely available to our students which are not and cannot be licensed as Open, such as articles and resources available through library databases. General information about OERs and our program efforts so far are available at https://libraries.etsu.edu/research/oer.  

Award amounts may range from $500 to $2,000 based on selection criteria and funding available. The awards can fund two main types of projects. Tier I Awards provide stipends to instructors who are adopting, adapting, and/or creating open/affordable course materials in a course that is currently using materials costing students money or a course that they never taught before. Tier II Awards provide stipends to instructors who have already adopted, adapted, and/or created open/affordable course materials in their course but need to make updates or substantial changes in order to keep using open and affordable materials. This may be in the form of switching open/affordable materials, revising an existing OER, or developing new OER.

Individual instructors of record for ETSU course(s) and cohorts are eligible for funding. Cohorts are multiple instructors teaching across multiple sections of the same course with plans to implement Open/Affordable materials the same way. If you are a cohort, you only have to complete one application instead of completing one application for each instructor. If awarded, instructors within the cohort will receive individual stipends between $500 to $2,000 similar to awards for individuals. 

Funds cannot be used to cover purchase of commercial electronic versions of textbooks or rentals of textbooks. If you are seeking funds to cover the purchase of a commercial e-textbook, you can request an e-textbook licensed for unlimited use through Sherrod Library’s Suggest a Purchase.  

The award is funded by the Student Library Fee (as decided by the Charles C. Sherrod Library's Student Advisory Council). The awards are co-managed by Sherrod Library and the Center for Teaching Excellence. Please email oer@etsu.edu if you have questions about the ETSU Open and Affordable Course Materials Awards Program.

Complete submissions will be evaluated by representatives from Sherrod Library, Center for Teaching Excellence, and other ETSU faculty and staff based on the following selection criteria and narrative responses to the proposal questions.  

• Cost Impact: Potential savings to ETSU students (based on number of sections per semester, enrollment numbers, and current text costs). 
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Implementing in a course with a high number of underrepresented students, particularly those in the general education curriculum. Using course materials that support diversity, equity, and inclusion. [Think about what that means for your discipline and how you may evaluate course materials in terms of DEI.]
• Open Licensing: Use, customization, and/or creation of Open Educational Resources will be given more weight in comparison to the use of Affordable resources.  
• Open Pedagogy and Student Engagement Potential: Transformation of how you teach with the course materials and how the course materials will engage students in the learning process.   
• Accessibility and Usability: Accessibility and usability of the resource for all students. 
• Sustainability and Timeline: Realistic timeline for implementing the Open and/or Affordable resources in your courses and sustainability of the resources beyond initial use. 
• Distribution of Materials: Sharing newly customized or created materials in Digital Commons@East Tennessee State University under a Creative Commons license that allows derivatives. 

Complete the application for Tier 1 or Tier 2.  

Tier 1 Application is for individuals or cohorts who are adopting, adapting, and/or creating open/affordable course materials in a course that is currently using materials costing students money or a course that you have never taught before. 

Tier 2 Application is for individuals or cohorts who have already adopted, adapted, and/or created open/affordable course materials in their course but need to make updates or substantial changes in order to keep using open/affordable materials.  

Deadline to Apply: May 15 and November 15

Charles C. Sherrod Library and the Center for Teaching Excellence are available to advise you in the process, including finding, creating, evaluating, and implementing OERs in your courses. Please email oer@etsu.edu if you would like assistance prior to submitting the award proposal. 

Awardees are expected to comply with several provisions designed to ensure the openness and availability of the funded project, as well as provide feedback to inform assessment of the awards. Awardees agree to the following conditions: 

• Willingness to collect and share assessment data, including forwarding a survey to your students and completing a survey on your experience. Assessments will be due approximately a month after the close of the semester of OER use, or an otherwise agreed upon time. 
• Join an online Faculty Learning Community and/or meet with the awards program coordinators prior or during the semester of implementation. This usually results in two meetings per semester. 
• Complete paperwork as requested. Memorandum of Agreement (MOU) will be required between the awardee and the OER Initiatives or Grant Team outlining expectations and obligations of the parties.  
• Make the most appropriate version of the work available for deposit into Digital Commons@East Tennessee State University under a Creative Commons license that allows for derivatives [if proposed in your application and indicated in the MOU]. 

Generally, the award will be distributed after the submission of deliverables (assessments, submissions to Digital Commons@ETSU) due a month after the close of the semester of OER use.  

Applicants will be informed of the decisions via email three weeks after the deadline. Award notifications will include an MOU and additional paperwork needed for the distribution of funds.