Open Education Initiative Grants

Open Education Initiative Grants is sponsored by University of Massachusetts Amherst. Grants supporting faculty-led projects that increase access, affordability, and student engagement through open educational resources.

Open Education Initiative (OEI) Grants - Open Educational Resources - LibGuides at University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst Open Educational Resources: Open Education Initiative (OEI) Grants Open Education Initiative (OEI) Grants eCampus Fast Adoption Tool Data & Open Scholarship Department For questions about ScholarWorks, our institutional open access repository for articles, book chapters, dissertations/theses, data, and more, please contact us at scholarworks@library.

umass. edu. For questions about writing data management and sharing plans, or finding, managing, using, or visualizing data, please contact us at librarydataservices@umass.

edu . Open Education Initiative The University Libraries are excited to launch the 2026 Open Education Initiative grant award cycle. These grants provide funding for instructors to adopt, adapt, revise, or create open educational resources (OER) or incorporate open pedagogical practices (OEP) into their courses.

OER are teaching materials released with an open license , which allows for their free revision and redistribution with attribution to the creator of the original work. OEP represent teaching and learning techniques that draw upon open and participatory technologies and high-quality OER in order to facilitate collaborative and flexible learning.

Encourage the development of alternatives to high-cost textbooks by supporting the adoption, adaptation, or creation of OER. Provide support to faculty to implement these approaches. Lower the cost of college for students and contribute to the retention, progression, and graduation of our students.

Encourage faculty to engage in new pedagogical models for classroom instruction. Priority funding will be given to projects that propose the creation of OER for a high-enrollment general education or foundational course . We will also prioritize applications from those who have not previously received awards as well as proposals from instructors who would like to enhance and upgrade the accessibility of their existing resources.

Below is a list of expectations for award recipients. Please read carefully before applying. Write a final grant report that includes a narrative summarizing the challenges and accomplishments of your experience creating/finding/using the materials, the impact on your teaching, the impact on students and their performance, and lessons learned.

Agree to share the results of your project with other faculty in your Department and the campus via meetings, workshops, or promotional materials. Circulate a qualitative and/or quantitative survey to all of your students at the end of the first semester you utilize the materials. Provide a copy of the revised syllabus or course outline used for the class.

Participate in long-range assessments of the Open Education Initiative. Materials developed for a course will be licensed with an appropriate Creative Commons license of the grantee’s choice. Agree to potentially participate on the review committee for future applications.

Proposals will be reviewed by representatives from the University Libraries, the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL), the Instructional Design, Engagement, and Support (IDEAS) group, and select previous awardees.

Proposals will be reviewed on the following rubrics: Transformative impact on student savings and/or student success (i.e. how many students are affected; what is the cost of current materials; what are the non-monetary benefits to students for belonging, accessibility, etc.; how widely can the materials be used beyond the individual course) Organization, planning, and feasibility of the project (the University Libraries and our partners are committed to supporting these projects and can discuss potential projects if you reach out to us) Assessment plans (we recognize each project is unique but we want to be able to show the impact of these innovative models on student success, affordability, and retention) Pedagogical and technological innovation Accessibility (meeting WCAG 2.

* accessibility guidelines is a requirement for OEI grants) Proposals are due Sunday, April 26, 2026 Email notification of successful proposals will be sent by May 22, 2026. Learn more about the 2026 Open Education Initiative, including the application process and criteria, and have the opportunity to ask questions about your specific proposal or project. Friday, March 6, 10:00 a.

m. – 11:00 a. m.

on Zoom ( Session 1 Registration ) Monday, March 9, 2:30 p. m. – 3:30 p.

m. on Zoom ( Session 2 Registration ) Thursday, March 12, 10:00 a. m.

– 11:00 a. m. on Zoom ( Session 3 Registration ) Tuesday, March 24, 12:00 p.

m. – 1:00 p. m.

on Zoom ( Session 4 Registration ) Please submit your project to our 2026 application form . You can also view and download a copy of the rubric our evaluators will use to assess proposals: 2026 Open Education Initiative Proposal Rubric The rubric used by evaluators to assess proposals for the 2026 Open Education Initiative grants.

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