10:20 a.m.
THECB seeks applications from Texas higher-ed institutions for GEER-funded Open
Educational Resources grants
Oct. 27, 2020, Austin, Texas – The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board today
announced a request for applications (RFA) for the Open Educational Resources (OER) Course
Development and Implementation Grant Program, supported by a portion of the $175 million
allocation to the THECB from the Governor’s Emergency Educational Relief (GEER)
Fund<https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2...;.
The competitive grant program will enhance the quality of online course offerings and
reduce the costs of educational materials for students at Texas public and independent
institutions of higher education. Matching grants will support teams of faculty engaged in
the development of new OER materials for online delivery and the redesign of courses using
existing OER.
“I appreciate Governor Abbott and Texas legislators for entrusting us with these resources
and supporting our efforts to increase accessibility and affordability while minimizing
barriers to higher education for students across the state. These grants, along with our
recently launched OERTX repository, will enable faculty across the state to access and
collaborate with each other in the development of open online content, while also
providing access for students to high quality digital materials,” said Commissioner of
Texas Higher Education Harrison Keller. “The Coordinating Board looks forward to
partnering with these institutions to support their faculty in the development and
adaptation of digital resources — all of which will be available at no charge to
students.”
THECB is establishing partnerships with three higher education institutions: OpenStax at
Rice University, Dallas College, and the Charles A. Dana Center at The University of Texas
at Austin. These technical assistance partner institutions will provide guidance to OER
Course Development and Implementation applicants and awardees, including the redesigning
of Texas Core Curriculum courses, co-requisite remediation for Texas Core Curriculum
Courses, and Workforce Education Course Manual (WECM) course inventory.
Two categories of grants are available under this RFA:
· Development Grants – matching grants of up to $25,000 to support faculty teams in
developing new OER for online course delivery. Cross-institutional collaboration is
required for development grants; and
· Implementation Grants – matching grants of up to $5,000 to support faculty or
teams of faculty in the redesign of courses for online delivery using existing
Cross-institutional collaboration is encouraged for implementation grants.
Texas institutions may apply
online<https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F...;.
Contingent upon the amount of funding available, the THECB expects to present three rounds
of grant awards under this RFA: Nov. 17, Dec. 15, 2020, and Jan. 11, 2021. Materials
developed/utilized for the grant program will be housed in the Texas OER repository
(OERTX.
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