Instructors - open education mini-grants

The Office of the Provost and the University Libraries are joining 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 Open Education “Mini-Grants” Initiative, encourages instructors to use 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 $1000 “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.

If you are interested in applying for this initiative, please attend one of the Open Education Initiative information sessions to be held Feb 13^st or 14^nd from noon to 1 pm in Jackson Library, Room 216.  Please RSVP prior to the workshop or any questions you have to Beth Bernhardt at brbernha@uncg.edu

The deadline to apply for the “mini-grants” is March 9^th.  You can apply at https://goo.gl/forms/Mgci6vdiAm6e7VUO2.

Thank you for your interest in pursuing non-traditional educational resources as an alternative to the traditional high-cost textbook.