As part of its strategic plan to increase access and student success, the Tennessee Board of Regents has awarded new grants totaling $650,000 to 27 faculty teams at 14 colleges and universities to create free Open Educational Resources for their courses.
Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning and research materials that are either in the public domain or licensed in a manner that provides free and perpetual permission to retain, reuse, revise, remix and redistribute them, commonly known as “the 5Rs.” These instructional materials can replace costly commercially published textbooks, courseware and other proprietary information sources.
The primary purpose of the Open Educational Resources Grant Program is to increase access to quality, no-cost and low-cost educational materials. Although the material is available to anyone who takes a course using OER, the program is designed to increase student success rates and improve educational outcomes for traditionally underserved students.
This is the third cycle of OER Grants awarded by TBR’s Offices of Academic Affairs and Organizational Effectiveness. OER materials developed during the first two years of the program have already saved students an estimated $6,666,032 on commercially published textbooks and instructional materials.
In this third round of grants, a total of 120 faculty members, librarians and instructional designers comprising the 27 teams will use the funding to create OER customized to specific classes. The request for proposals for the current round generated 59 proposals, more than double the number received last year.
Including the current round, grants totaling just over $1,442,000 have been awarded to 58 campus teams involving 237 faculty, librarians and instructional designers since the OER grant program began.
The third-round teams represent 10 community and technical colleges in the College System of Tennessee, and four independent state universities (complete list of awardees below).
TBR Chancellor Flora W. Tydings said that many financial aid programs pay for tuition and fees “but many students tell us they still can’t attend because they can’t afford textbooks and other course material. Some report trying to make it through a class without the material they need, due to the expense. Development of learning materials that are free for students is the critical next step in our efforts to make college affordable for all Tennesseans.”
Dr. Robert M. Denn, TBR associate vice chancellor for academic affairs and OER grant program officer, offered this analogy. “TBR’s vision in building the OER infrastructure is much like Ford’s investment in the electric F-150 Lightning truck plant in Tennessee. OER is the future of instructional materials in higher education. It places more power in the hands of the faculty and the students to direct their own teaching and learning. What proportion of vehicles do you expect will be on the road with internal combustion engines in 5 to 10 years? Our faculty are working towards a corresponding decrease in the number of $250 textbooks in our classrooms.”
The OER Grant program is part of the larger Tennessee Open Education statewide initiative, launched in 2021 with several components working together to improve student success, including:
This year, TBR is collaborating with Achieving the Dream and SRI Education to study the effects Open Educational Practices (OEP) have on student learning outcomes. Twelve of the 27 grant teams will be participating in the study and will attend the OEP Summer Institute at Chattanooga State Community College in July.
The complete list of third-round OER grant awardees and their projects are posted on the TBR Tennessee Open Education webpage: https://www.tbr.edu/academics/tennessee-open-education#grant
Project leaders and their projects, by institution:
Chattanooga State Community College
Columbia State Community College
East Tennessee State University
Middle Tennessee State University
Nashville State Community College
Northeast State Community College
Pellissippi State Community College
Roane State Community College
Southwest Tennessee Community College
Tennessee College of Applied Technology Knoxville
Tennessee Tech University
University of Memphis
Volunteer State Community College
Walters State Community College
The College System of Tennessee is the state’s largest public higher education system, with 13 community colleges, 27 colleges of applied technology and the online TN eCampus serving approximately 140,000 students. The system is governed by the Tennessee Board of Regents.