The Office of the Provost and University Libraries join together to support faculty interested in providing their students with a less expensive yet educationally rewarding alternative to expensive commercial textbooks.
The high cost of commercial textbooks (print and electronic) is a major concern for both students and their parents. The UNCG Open Education “Mini-Grants” Initiative, encourages instructors to use open educational resources (OERs) materials or low-cost or free alternatives to expensive course materials; these can include open-access scholarly resources, library-licensed and owned resources and learning objects and texts that faculty create themselves.
Fifteen $1,000 “mini-grants” will be available this spring. These modest yet significant sums are meant to offer an incentive for the time it will take you to identify new resources, adjust syllabi, and modify assignments and can also be used to cover any actual expenses you incur. We invite you to engage in this transition through a competitive grant process. University Libraries will host a panel of past OER winners in the Virginia Dare Room of the Alumni House on Thursday, January 30, 2020 at 9 a.m. with refreshments provided.
If you are interested in applying for this initiative, please attend one of the Open Education Initiative information sessions to be held on January 28 and 29 from noon – 1 p.m. in Jackson Library, Room 216. Drinks and desserts will be provided, and you are welcome to bring your lunch. Please RSVP prior to the workshop and send any questions you have to Sam Harlow at slharlow@uncg.edu or Melody Rood at mlrood@uncg.edu.
The deadline to apply for the “mini-grants” is Friday, February 7, 2020. Visit http://go.uncg.edu/minigrants2020 and apply today. Thank you for your interest in pursuing non-traditional educational resources as an alternative to the traditional high-cost textbook.
