Deans OER Initiative

In late 2025, the Office of the Provost approved the Deans Council OER Grant Initiative to incentivize the adoption of open educational resources (OER) in high-enrollment courses that are generally aligned with the KU 34 Core requirements, particularly those with high D, F, & W rates and costly course materials. OER are "teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others" (Hewlett Foundation). Initiative is being implemented in partnership with KU Libraries, drawing on the Libraries’ expertise in open education and established relationships with campus partners.

The Initiative will focus on the adoption of existing OER content for qualifying courses, and not adaptation or new content creation. The creation of supplemental materials necessary to support successful implementation is acceptable.

Beginning on September 11, 2026, the Libraries will begin accepting applications for the 2026-2027 academic year. Review of the applications will begin on November 4, 2026. Prior to applying, departments/instructors interested in adopting an OER in a qualifying course are highly encouraged to contact oer@ku.edu to set up a meeting to discuss the specifics of the Initiative.

Initiative Details

• The Initiative will be funded at $225,000 over three years with 2–3 grants awarded per semester.
• Initial Initiative amounts: 
  • $5,000 + $5 per student (capped at 200 students) for individual proposals.
  • $10,000 + $5 per student(capped at 200 students) for collaborative proposals.
• Funds can support faculty stipends, GTAs, summer salary and other implementation needs.
• Projects should address all sections of a course, not a subset (if not comprehensive, then as many sections as possible).. 
• In addition to funding, various support and assistance will be provided such as:
  • help identifying potential OER for adoption (prior to application)
  • navigating Creative Commons licenses and other intellectual property issues
  • coordination with other KU units on course design and assessment
  • facilitation of access to instructors with experience using OER and mentoring and cohort models within the program.

Initiative Philosophy: Flexibility & Partnership

The program emphasizes:

• A collaborative, supportive relationship with faculty and departments.
• Flexibility and ongoing modifications based on feedback.

Assessment

Assessment is important to measure the impact and to guide future efforts.

• The project’s assessment piece will track data measuring DFW rates before and after OER implementation and whether the use of OER shows improvement in these rates. Please note if a course currently uses OER, a baseline number won’t be available from which to start the assessment.

Next Steps for the 2026-27 Academic Year

• Acceptance of application will begin on September 11, 2026
• Review of applications will begin on November 4, 2026.
• Prior to applying, interested instructors/departments are highly encouraged to contact  oer@ku.edu heather-macbean@ku.edu or jbolick@ku.edu to set up a meeting to discuss the specifics of the Initiative. 
• We anticipate a recurring call for proposals each semester throughout the life of the initiative.

COMING SOON! LINK TO GRANT APPLICATION

If your course does not qualify for this grant, KU Libraries has other programs available to support your continued OER use. Please see the Additional Resources section below. 

Find Examples of OER

• OpenStax textbooks
• Open Textbook Library from the University of Minnesota
• OER Guide: Finding OER

Additional Resources

Helpful sites for OER discovery and research:

• KU’s OER web page
• OER LibGuide
• Open Language Resource Center (OLRC)
• AAC&U’s Open Educational Resources: A New High Impact Practice 
• The Impact of Open Educational Resources on Various Student Success Metrics, by Colvard, Nicholas B.; Watson, C. Edward; Park, Hyojin  
• The Open Education Group (for research)