The British Columbia Open Education Institutional Grant is available to all publicly funded post-secondary institutions in British Columbia. Its purpose is to support institutions in exploring, initiating, launching, or sustaining open education initiatives.
At a Glance
Deadline for applications: Friday, February 28, 2025
Adjudication period: March 3–14, 2025
Successful applicants will be notified the week of March 17, 2025
Grant funding Period: April 1, 2025–March 31, 2026
Grant Amount: $33,000
Number of grants available: Three
Distribution of funds: Three payments of $11,000 each will be distributed to successful grantees.
- Distribution 1: Upon signing the contract
- Distribution 2: After submission of the interim report , halfway through the grant period (around September 2025)
- Distribution 3: After the submission of the final report.
Webinar for Interested Institutions
If you would like more information on this grant, an open informational webinar will be held on Wednesday February 12th at 1pm (PST). Register here.
Grant Overview
This grant is designed to be flexible, depending on the specific needs of your institution. Whether your institution requires support for OER publishing, developing a ZTC (Zero Textbook Cost) program, or redeveloping courses to incorporate OEP (Open Educational Practices), this grant provides funding to support these efforts.
Some examples of how these funds might be used at your institution may include:
- Open Education awareness building, including hosting or developing workshops, training, and other events related to open education.
- Develop or sustain an institutional Open Education working group.
- Develop or sustaining Open Educational Practices (OEP) at your institution.
- Support for institutional open publishing programs that result in the development of Open Educational Resources (OER) including open textbooks & ancillary resources.
- Developing or delivering workshops for instructors on how to use or adopt OER and OEP.
- Development of ZTC (Zero Textbook Cost) programs.
- Development or redevelopment of courses to incorporate OER.
- Development of an institutional open education policy.
- Conducting institutional research on open education.
- Release time for a faculty or staff members to:
- organize open educational events.
- develop open educational support materials and/or systems.
- investigate and track open textbook and/or other OER adoption or usage on campus.
- explore how OEP and OER might fit within an institution’s overall strategy on teaching, learning, and scholarship.
- Develop or explore other innovative approaches to open education.
Funding is not limited to these examples and can also support other open education activities and initiatives not listed here.
Examples of Similar Past Grant Recipient Projects
Camosun College: Established the Open Education Demonstration Initiative (OEDI), bringing together a team of up to ten faculty members, librarians, educational technologists, curriculum developers, and specialists in adaptive technology and indigenization to redevelop ten courses using open educational resources (OER) and open educational practices (OEP).
Capilano University: Created four new OER Fellow positions to promote awareness and increase the utilization of open textbooks and OER. These positions focused on four new baccalaureate degree programs with high enrollment, where maximum benefit could be realized: bachelor of science, bachelor of arts with a major in psychology, bachelor of arts with a major in English, and bachelor of human kinetics.
Justice Institute of B.C.: Hosted two Open Education Showcases and a professional development day, created an open education website, and facilitated a criminology ancillary sprint to complement the upcoming criminology book from KPU.
Kwantlen Polytechnic University: Hosted an annual Open Education Research Institute, developed LaTeX support services as well as graphic design and layout support, created a pre-publication peer-review program, and developed a question bank sprint guide.
Guidelines for Successful Proposals
The selection committee prioritizes well-written proposals that clearly address the guidelines outlined below. To be considered, proposals must meet the following criteria:
- Proposals must be submitted by a single lead representative from the institution, who will serve as the designated authority responsible for managing the grant funding on behalf of the institution.
- Outline how the funds will be used to support open education at your institution. Be specific about the types of initiatives you plan to develop or sustain.
- If funds are used to develop or adapt OER, there must be a commitment to use the OER at your institution. Specify which courses and programs will adopt the newly created or adapted OER and, if applicable, include any expected cost savings to students. Proposals for OER development or adaptation funding without an institutional commitment to use the resulting OER will not be funded.
- For new OER creation, indicate where the OER will be stored, how it will be made accessible, and the type of Creative Commons license used.
- Include a budget documenting how the funds will be used. If your institution is also providing support (in-kind or other), please note that in the budget.
- Provide a timeline of proposed activities, noting that the deadline to use the funds is March 31, 2026.
- List the key personnel, including their experience, training, or certifications in open education.
- Include a letter of support from a member of your institution’s senior administration. Proposals that do not include a letter of support from a senior administrator will not be considered.
Grant proposals are also evaluated for how they might:
- Positively impact large numbers of students across an institution and its campuses.
- Encourage collaboration across disciplines and departments within the institution.
- Address accessibility and make use of the principles of Universal Design for Learning.
- Consider equity, diversity, and inclusion and make use of inclusive practices.
- Incorporate Indigenous perspectives and pedagogies.
While the application form indicates the required, basic information, those wishing to submit more details may attach appendices.
Funding Requirements
Grantees are required to submit both interim and final reports detailing the open educational activities supported by this grant. The interim report serves as a check-in report with the BCcampus project manager, and identifies progress towards achieving the grants objectives. The final report is a written report that must include:
- A detailed description of the initiatives funded by the grant.
- A table of expenses outlining how the funding was spent and on what initiatives.
- (If applicable) Identify any new or adapted OER created with the funding, where these items are stored, and the Creative Commons licenses the items are released under.
- (If applicable) Dates and locations (in-person or virtual) of any workshops or training initiatives, and a count of the number of participants.
- Any reflective lessons learned that could benefit future grant applicants.
In addition, grantees must:
- Complete deliverables on time.
- Follow sound open publishing practices for all OER created or adapted with these funds—it is highly recommended that grantees identify members of the OER publishing support team prior to soliciting authors.
- Agree to participate in development of an informational blog post about their grant activities for the BCcampus website.
- Provide acknowledgement of BCcampus as the funder of these initiatives at their institution.
How to Apply
Please complete the Open Education Institutional Grant Application and submit it by 11:59 p.m. PST on February 28th to open@bccampus.ca. Submissions will be confirmed by an email reply, and we will notify you of the results of your submission by March 17, 2025.
Review and Selection Process
Evaluation, selection, and awards are determined by an internal review committee against the Evaluation Criteria.
If you have questions, please email open@bccampus.ca.