Ancillary Resources Grant

Ancillary Resource Grant

This call for proposals is now closed.

Key Dates – EXTENDED

Closing date for proposals: Friday, April 27, 2018 11:59 PM PDT
Successful submission notification date: Tuesday, May 8, 2018
Grant recipient announcement date: Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Open to faculty and staff from post-secondary institutions in British Columbia and the Yukon

Application Form

Application form: Ancillary Resource Grant

Introduction

Since 2012, the Ministry of Advanced Education, Skills and Training has funded B.C. Open Education initiatives and tasked BCcampus with managing it. BCcampus Open Education’s goal is to provide flexible and affordable access to post-secondary learning resources in B.C. by making available openly-licensed textbooks that align with the most highly enrolled first and second year undergraduate subject areas, as well as with select skills-training and trades subject areas.

In 2018, BCcampus will continue to advance the province’s open and affordable education vision by working closely with B.C.’s post-secondary institutions to continue to build the B.C. Open Textbook Collection. With financial support from the Hewlett Foundation, BCcampus Open Education will broaden those efforts in two key ways:

Support the development of engaging, interactive open educational resources that complement the B.C. Open Textbook Collection
Encourage faculty to incorporate open educational practices in their teaching

What is an open textbook?

An open textbook is a textbook licensed under an open-copyright licence and made available online to be freely used by students, teachers, and members of the public. Print-on-demand copies are also made available at cost.

Synopsis

This call for proposals is for institutions or their representatives (e.g., articulation committees, teaching and learning centres, libraries, and OER working groups) in British Columbia and the Yukon to develop ancillary materials for existing open textbooks in the B.C. Open Textbook Collection that assist faculty with adopting the aligned open textbook and improve the sustainability of OER. These materials can include:

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

Application Process

The application form should be completed and emailed to: open@bccampus.ca.

While the application form provides the basic information required, those wishing to submit more detail may attach appendices as required. The evaluation committee looks for proposals that are well written and specifically address the guidelines.

Because proposals may include multiple institutional partners, you must designate a lead representative for the project and submit the proposal through the lead. Institutional partners should include a letter of support identifying names and roles of participants.

A maximum of four Ancillary Resource Grants will be awarded. Each grant is capped at $2,500.

Criteria for Successful Proposals

Successful proposals will meet the following mandatory criteria:

Not exceed a $2,500 funding request from BCcampus
Align with an existing open textbook in the B.C. Open Textbook Collection
As part of the proposed ancillary resource, document the reuse of openly-licensed materials. These OER may originate from any source (see Open Textbook/OER Directory) including those created by B.C. post-secondary faculty and staff, and stored in SOL*R. (Note: SOL*R materials released under a BC Commons licence are not eligible.)
Exhibit characteristics of quality teaching and learning such as, alignment with learning outcomes or curriculum guidelines
Demonstrate sustainability and cost-effectiveness
Demonstrate collaboration of project faculty and staff in one or more of the following ways:
1) within a single institution
2) between two or more B.C. post-secondary institutions
3) within an articulation committee
4) within a professional organization.
Be released with an open licence, such as a Creative Commons licence (preferably CC BY), which allows others to freely retain, copy, modify, remix, and/or redistribute the content.
Include a budget documenting the use of the funding being requested
Include a project timeline

The following criteria are preferred, but not mandatory. Preference will be given to proposals that:

Impact large numbers of students across multiple institutions
- So as many instructors as possible can use this resource to help their students save money: Consider all courses across the province that might use this OER and include in your proposal
- So all students have an equal opportunity to learn: Address accessibility and make use of the principles of Universal Design for Learning
- So First Nations students and the aboriginal viewpoint are included: Incorporate Indigenous perspectives and pedagogies
- So all students identify with and feel included while learning: Consider equity, diversity, and inclusion and make use of Inclusive Practices
Include the provision of resources necessary to complete the project, such as the assistance of an instructional designer, multimedia developer, librarian, and copy editor. If the applicant uses available resources, it promotes more institutional buy-in to the project and thus the potential for more adoption
Encourage the use of activities that embrace open pedagogies

Strong proposals will demonstrate how the ancillary resource being created aligns with an open textbook in the B.C. Open Textbook Collection.

Project Requirements

For funding to be released, all Ancillary Resource Grants must:

Be released with an open licence, such as a Creative Commons licence, which allows others to freely retain, copy, modify, remix, and/or redistribute the content
Be completed on time
Include all source/editable files used in creating the resource (including any multimedia files) to easily enable further remixing and modification
Be copyedited
Agree and participate in an interview about the project

Eligible Subject Areas

In an ongoing effort to sustain and build the B.C. Open Textbook Collection, BCcampus asked institutions to identify subject areas in the B.C. Open Textbook Collection that are missing open ancillary resources, entirely, in specific categories, and/or for certain course levels.

Preference will be given to the following open textbooks, based on a needs analysis: