OEP Program Funded Grants

The University of Regina Open Education and Publishing (OEP) Program funds two grants for the development of open educational resources (OERs). Faculty, instructors, and staff who want to adapt, adopt, or create open educational resources are welcome to apply for any of these grants.    

The Program adopts the Hewlett Foundation definition of OER:

“OER are teaching, learning and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use or re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software and any other tools, materials or techniques used to support access to knowledge.”

From this definition, OER range from full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks and supplementary teaching resources, such as PowerPoint slides and test banks, etc.

Eligibility Criteria

Tenure-track or tenured faculty and instructors employed by the University of Regina and its federated colleges.

Applications from faculty/ instructors who are on term-appointment and sessional lecturers will also be considered. However, since their employment contract is temporary, applicants falling into one of these groups must make a convincing case that there is a very good prospect that the proposed textbook or supporting teaching material will be used in U of R/ federated college courses within one year of product completion.

Eligible projects

There are two main types of projects eligible for funding through the OER Program as described below.

Small Project

The small project will be awarded to projects that fall into one of the following categories:

  • Supplementary resources for existing open content including testbanks, PPT slides, videos, audios, images, H5P, animations, etc.
  • Minor adaptation of an existing open textbook resource (addition/change of up to 25% of existing content)
  • Open pedagogy projects with students working as co-creators of content

Large Project

The large project will be awarded to projects in one of the following categories:

  • Creation of a new open textbook resource (creation/addition of more than 50% new content)
  • A major adaptation of an existing open textbook resource (creation/addition of up to 50% new content)

Levels of Funding

The following grants are available:

  1. OER Adaptation Grant: This grant assists interested faculty and instructors with undertaking small OER projects, such as the creation of supplementary materials, and helps them to get started using existing OER.
    • Minor adaptation of an existing open textbook resource (addition/change of up to 25% of existing content)
    • Open pedagogy projects with students working as co-creators of content
    • Approximate timeline for project creation: 4-6 months
    • Funding available: up to $3,500 per application
    • Download the application form: Small adaptation grant application
  2. OER Supplementary Grant: The second option for this grant is for faculty and instructors to undertake the creation of supplementary materials for use in courses.
  • Supplementary resources for courses including testbanks, presentation slides, videos, audios, images, H5P, animations, case studies, etc.
  • Approximate timeline for project creations: 4-6 months
  • Funding available: up to $3,500 per application
  • Download the application form: Small supplementary grant application
  1. OER Large Project Grant: This grant is meant to support faculty and instructors to undertake large OER projects. This type of project requires larger budgets and commitments from participants in terms of time (e.g., course releases and research assistance) and resources (e.g., instructional design, peer review, and copy editing).
    • Example: Creation of a new open textbook
    • Example: A major adaptation of an existing open textbook (creation/addition of up to 50% new content)
    • Approximate timeline for project creation: 1-2 years (maximum 3 years)
    • Funding available: up to $25,000 per application
    • Download the application form: Large grant application

Need help with your application?

The OEP Program is available to work with you and your department to complete your application. Please email the Program Manager Shuana Niessen at open.textbooks@uregina.ca