Application Guidelines

Professor speaks to his class in language lab, CAS
Professor Scott Hartley, wearing protective glasses, talks with students in the lab, CAS

Eligibility

All Miami University full-time instructional faculty who have responsibility for teaching and/or coordinating a course are eligible for a variety of university initiatives designed to promote affordable and open educational resources. All faculty may participate in the OER Explore workshop. 

Faculty may apply for the OER Adopt, OER Create, Course Pack Consultation Service, and Alternate Textbook programs.

Submissions

Applications are considered on a rolling basis during the academic year. Applications which are submitted between April 1 and August 1 will be reviewed early in the following fall semester.

Application forms can be accessed via a Canvas site. Please contact Carla Myers, Scholarly Communications Coordinator, at myersc2@MiamiOH.edu or Amy Bergerson, Associate Provost and dean for undergraduate Education, at bergera9@MiamiOH.edu for access to the Canvas site. 

Applications will be evaluated using the following criteria:

  1. Completeness of the application;
  2. Ability to adopt or adapt a quality product and actively engage students in the learning process;
  3. Potential student savings, including consideration of the class enrollment and cost of existing materials;
  4. Average enrollment in the course and the frequency with which it is scheduled;
  5. Availability of suitable OER and/or affordable or free course material in major repositories;
  6. Likelihood that the applicant can and will complete the work involved in the timeframe;
  7. Sustainability of the resource beyond the initial use;
  8. Impact of the project on open or affordable education;
  9. Open licensing of adapted course materials (if appropriate);
  10. Accessibility and usability of the resource for all students.

Submissions that best describe available OER or affordable resources, the applicant’s ability to create affordable course materials or adopt/adapt OER, and possible additional assessment mechanisms will be judged more favorably.

The committee will not review applications:

  • Submitted after the application deadline;
  • With missing information;
  • From faculty members who have not submitted a Final Report on the outcomes of previous awards.

Applications meeting the following criteria will be given priority:

  1. Applications that have the potential to lower the costs of textbooks for a large number of students because the course has high enrollment, is taught frequently, or in multiple sections.
  2. Applications that include additional effective mechanisms to assess/compare student learning before and after the changes you plan to implement.
  3. Applications from faculty who have consulted and made effective use of librarians and/or CTE staff during the preparation of the application.

Review of Applications

Applications will be reviewed by the University Affordable and Open Educational Resource Committee (AOERC), in consultation with the appropriate department chair. Because there is no discipline-specific review, applications must be well conceived, clearly stated, and written in a language that can be understood by an audience of faculty peers from a range of disciplines.

Applications which involve a course taught by multiple faculty members should be accompanied by a statement from the department chair or director, supporting the application. In the case of multiple faculty proposers, the professional development funding will generally be divided among the faculty. However, if the faculty are proposing to try different OER or affordable resources for different sections of the same course to compare results, the faculty proposers will each receive full professional development funding.

For more information on OER and/or Affordable Learning, please see Libraries' OER LibGuide or contact Carla Myers, Scholarly Communications Coordinator at myersc2@MiamiOH.edu; 513 529-3935.