Illinois SCOERs Notice of Funding Opportunity: Round Three

Sub-grant applications (“application”) are invited from CARLI Governing Members. Application teams (“workgroups”) can include institutions that are not CARLI Governing Members; however, the lead institution must be a CARLI Governing Member. CARLI strongly encourages but does not require multi-institutional collaboration so that the project will impact the largest number of students in Illinois.

Each applicant workgroup will mirror the team assembled at CARLI and must include:

• One librarian/library staff member who will serve as sub-grant coordinator,
• At least one subject matter specialist or author,
• One instructional designer,
• One copyright coordinator,
• One accessibility coordinator,
• One proofreader,
• One 3D printing coordinator
• One industry/sector representative.

Please note that one person can be identified to fulfill multiple roles within the workgroup, but not all roles.

Also, note that we are not expecting each person to be an expert in the role they are assigned. Illinois SCOERs seeks to develop expertise statewide by providing training to CARLI Governing Member faculty and staff. Our team at CARLI will provide support and training to help ensure the development of knowledge and skills necessary to build a vibrant OER community for CARLI Governing Members.

At this time, in addition to proposals for the creation of Open Educational textbooks, we will also consider proposals for the creation of ancillary materials to accompany OER textbooks that you are already using or plan to use in your high-enrollment courses in any subject area. The same criteria for evaluation will apply, such as the number of students impacted, the cost of textbooks or ancillary materials previously used, how often the course is taught, and how many institutions are involved, etc.

Special consideration will be given OER proposals that address introductory-level courses related to CARLI’s theme of "The Human Condition: Care, Development, and Lifespan." However, we will also consider applications for courses in any subject area where traditional textbooks represent a significant student expense, taught in multiple sections, or taught at least once a year.

Interested parties can fill out an intent to apply here

The application and list of supporting materials can be found here. PDF version

Each workgroup must submit one complete application packet which proposes OER and ancillary creation within the focus area. As specified in the Round 3 Sub-Grant Application Packet Instructions, each packet must:

• Describe the project in detail, including a timeline, budget, and budget justification.
• Identify workgroup members. Multi-institutional collaboration among CARLI Governing Members is preferred but not required.
• Cite and describe any OER that will be used as a starting point in the project, or document that existing resources are not available to meet your learning objectives.¹
• Provide information about the course(s) for which the OER will be used, explain course competencies and learning outcomes.
• Notify relevant institutional units that will receive and distribute the grant funds about this application.
• Secure a letter(s) of support from your department chair, dean, or person in a similar role who is responsible for assigning courses. The purpose of the letter is to verify that if you receive the grant, you or a designated alternate will be assigned to teach the redesigned course using the new OER at least one time before June 30, 2025. Projects that will be adopted by multiple institutions must secure a letter from the institution.

¹ Good places to start this research include CARLI Open-Ed Resources, Open Textbook Library, and OER Commons. Contact a librarian at your local institution if you need help with your search.

• Workgroups will collaborate with CARLI to develop a timeline of deliverables, payment schedule, and gather impact data.
• Workgroups will create or substantially revise/remix an open textbook and ancillary materials. A 3D printing assignment must be one of the ancillary materials that is created. CARLI staff will help with the development of this requirement. Other ancillaries could include teacher guides, study guides, self-assessments, quizzes, tests, presentation slides, multimedia content, learning activities, flashcards.
• All work must employ evidence-base content and practices. It must fulfill core competencies and requirements of its subject area. Additionally, we are seeking projects that encourage students to engage:
  • Intellectual Reasoning and Knowledge
  • Creative Inquiry and Discovery
  • Effective Leadership and Community Engagement
  • Social Awareness and Cultural Understanding
• All deliverables including the ancillaries must have a Creative Commons BY 4.0 license so that others can easily adopt and reuse.
• Report your OER adoption to your campus bookstore (or equivalent) before the deadline for Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) reporting.
• At least one section of your course will be taught using the OER and course materials created with the grant before June 30, 2025 (pending a one-year grant extension for CARLI.) If you cannot guarantee that you will be teaching before June 30, 2025, you must identify an alternate who will commit to using the OER at your institution in advance. If possible we would prefer more than one semester of OER use, but given our time constraints we realize this may not be possible.
• Awardeees must commit to using the textbook for three years, or a minimum of six semesters.
• Workgroups will submit on-time quarterly reports on the status of the project and OER adoption.
• Provide needed updates to OER materials for three years following the grant.
• Provide data to CARLI as specified by the Project Director, including previous course enrollment numbers, textbook costs, and pass/fail/drop rates. 
• Collect feedback from students on their experiences taking an OER course.
• Help to publicize your work and become an advocate for OER by providing CARLI with press-worthy updates; presenting webinars, workshops, and professional meetings; or giving a presentation to your department colleagues.
• Share the resources adapted/created to accessible repositories: CARLI’s OER Commons Hub, LibreTexts, and the Open Textbook Library. The OER must be made available for printing through XanEdu.

• Student savings during grant period (through June 30, 2025) compared to grant amount
• Comprehensiveness and clarity
• Content accuracy and relevance to the field
• Adaptive learning activities and course design that consider accessibility, universal design, and user experience
• Creative pedagogy
• Modularity and adaptability
• Appropriateness of the ancillary materials
• Department commitment (for example, redesign all sections of a class or all classes in a sequence)
• Applications that address issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion
• Additional consideration will be given for OER that feature inter-institutional (community college, public university, private college/university) collaboration.
• Diversity of institutions involved and the populations they serve
• Feasibility of project as proposed
• Equitable distribution of funds statewide

Applications will be evaluated by a sub-grant review committee approved by the CARLI Board of Directors composed of CARLI Open Illinois staff, CARLI Governing Members, and industry representatives.

*Project timelines may vary depending on the amount of original material needed.

For more information visit our project website

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