OER Grants at WSU

OER Grants 2024 - Applications Closed

We are excited to expand the OER Grant Program for 2024 and applications are open! These grants provide faculty, adjuncts, and staff, an opportunity to revise their course to utilize OER. Application information is available below. For any questions or interest in OER contact us at oer@weber.edu.

Applications will be due November 26th, 2023.

Grant recipient projects will have a completion deadline of December 6th, 2024.


Beginning 2024, all OER Grants require that:

  • Resources adopted, modified or created carry an open license. For support to revise courses using non-OER, no-cost options contact us at oer@weber.edu.
  • Recipients meet with an instructional designer early in their project in order to ensure the final project meets university accessibility guidelines. Grant staff will help coordinate initial meetings after recipients are selected.

Adopt Grant

Typical projects involve: Investigating existing OER, adopt existing OER content that doesn't need any modification, or very mild modification such as migrating resources into Pressbooks, and modifying your course to utilize the adopted OER.

Maximum Funding - $1,000 per course

Adapt Grant

Typical projects involve: Investigating existing OER, select existing OER content and perform moderate modification, and modifying your course to utilize the adapted OER.

Maximum Funding - $2,000 per course

Create Grant

Typical projects involve: Investigating existing OER, extensively modifying existing OER content to create a new resource or create an OER from scratch, and modifying your course to utilize the created OER.

Maximum Funding - Varies by scope. $3,000 for extensive modification. $5,000 for creating an OER from scratch. Up to $20,000 for group projects with high impact on multiple courses/sections or impact on high enrollment general education courses. $5,000 per individual cap in large group projects.

Maintenance Grant

Typical projects involve: Significantly modifying or updating an OER resource you have taught with in the past to ensure it remains current or to improve the resource based on experience and feedback. This can be for an OER you adopted or adapted (license permitting) or that you created yourself.

Maximum Funding - $1,500 per course

Research Grant

This grant is intended for individual recipients that will be searching for existing open resources in your field. Recipients will be expected to complete the OER Basics course in Bridge, spend time searching and evaluating existing OER, and submit a report based on their findings. There is no commitment to using discovered OER. Priority will be given to applicants that have not received the grant in the past.

Maximum Funding - $350


Preparing your Proposal

Different grant applications will require different information, but in general you will need the following prepared:

  • Name, contact info, and department for all participants
  • Course name and abbreviation for the modified course(s), along with the average annual enrollment and sections taught or impacted
  • Project summary that includes:
    • Motivators behind the project
    • Detailed budget breakdown and funding rationale
    • Outline of an anticipated timeline, including an expected implementation semester and any milestones throughout the project.
    • How the new resources will improve your course and support course learning objectives.
  • A letter of support for your project, signed by your Dean or Department Head

Grant Criteria

  • Potential to reduce student expense, such as replacing a high cost textbook or the impact on a large number of students in high enrollment courses.
  • Feasibility to meet your project deadline. Grant funds are released upon completion of the proposed project. Depending on the scope of the proposed project you may request that funding be released over the course of the project to match completion of milestones noted in the project summary.
  • How they will contribute to the open education community, such as through Creative Commons licensing and filling a gap in available course materials for a given subject.
  • Preference may be given to required general education courses and to courses selecting OER as their primary text. Preference may be given to applicants that have not received an OER Grant in the past.