Call for Proposals Announced

With the support of both the Ministry of Advanced Education and the Hewlett Foundation, BCcampus will distribute the following grants in support of Open Education:

• Zed Cred/Z-Degree
  
• Ancillary Resources
  
• OER Grants
  

New this year

We are excited to announce the newest grant for this year- the Zed Cred/Z-Degree grant. A Zed Cred/Z-Degree is a set of courses in a specific program area that allows a student to earn a credential, such as an associate degree or certificate program, with zero textbook costs by way of using open educational resources and/or free library materials.

Successful Open Educational Resources Zed Cred/Z Degree implementations will empower faculty to lead the work, develop broad-based support across the institution for using open educational resources, and promote the benefits of enrolling in an open educational resources degree programs to students. The process of developing an open educational resources degree will build institutional capacity for designing clearer and more efficient pathways to credentials and better connecting student learning outcomes to curriculum and pedagogy.

BCcampus will distribute two grants (maximum $35,000.00) to BC Institutions committed to the development of a “Zed Cred” (Z Degree) Program. With the funds, Institutions will not only develop pathways to credential by adopting and adapting pre-existing OER, the funds may also be used to create new OER necessary for the program. The Institutions will also be required to package and publish their degree paths such that other Institutions from BC and beyond can borrow from their progress. Any learning materials created under the Zed Cred program will hold a Creative Commons BY license and must be fully editable.

As this initiative is new to British Columbia, we welcome any questions you may have about the grant program, the outcomes, and expectations. Please feel free to connect with our Open Education Team at opentext@bccampus.ca

Ancillary Resources and OER Grants

In addition to the Zed Cred/Z-degree grants, we are distributing two other types of grants (Ancillary Resources and OER Grants). Changes have been made to the grants based on recommendations from last year.

The ancillary resources call for proposals is to support inter-institutional initiatives to create ancillary support material for existing open textbooks in the BC Open Textbook Collection that could assist faculty in adopting the open textbook. This material can include:

• Testbanks of questions based on an existing open textbook.
• Presentations (PowerPoint, Open Office, Prezi, etc)
• Multimedia content, such as audio or video, that could further enhance the textbook.
• Simulations.
• Instructor and student manuals.
• Additional learning activities.

Ancillary Resource Development Proposals can not exceed $2,500.00 provided by BCcampus. A maximum of four Ancillary Resource Grants will be awarded.

The OER Grants call for proposals is for institutions or their representatives (e.g. Articulation Committees, Teaching and Learning Centres, Libraries, OER Working Groups) in British Columbia and Yukon to provide small open educational resource grants, funded by BCcampus and matched by the institution. Open Educational Resource grants may be used for, but are not limited to:

• Adaptation of Open Textbooks/Open Educational Resources
• Creation of Open Textbooks/Open Educational Resources
• Course redesign using Open Textbooks/Open Educational Resources
• Workshops, training, and institutional support for OER infrastructure (e.g. Open Policy, Awareness, How to Adopt, How to Adapt, Pressbooks Support)

OER Grant Proposals can not exceed $10,000.00 provided by BCcampus. A maximum of four OER Grants will be awarded.

Should you have questions about the changes and/or the outcomes, expectations of these grants please fee free to connect with our Open Education Team at opentext@bccampus.ca