Campus Entities Most Active in Efforts Advancing OER:

• Academic Department
• Academic Division
• Academic/Information Technology
• Assistive Technology or Disability Services Office
• Campus Store
• Faculty Champions(s)
• Library
• Senior Administration
• Teaching and Learning Center

Library Departments Active in Efforts Advancing OER:

• Scholarly Communication

Academic Subjects With Greatest OER Traction:

• Arts
• Education
• Languages
• Mathematics and statistics

VCU Libraries, the Office of the Provost, the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence and the ALT Lab are partnering to provide financial awards and other types of support for faculty adoption and creation of free or low cost alternatives to expensive textbooks. Academic Technologies, Online @ VCU, Student Accessibility and Educational Opportunity, and the VCU Bookstore have also committed to serve as resources for award recipients.

In the first year of the program, seven faculty projects were selected to receive awards to author open textbooks and other course content. The faculty recipients are working on their projects throughout the 2017-18 academic year, with implementation expected by fall 2018. The program is currently accepting applications for the second round of awards.

Program Type:

• Award Program

Duration: 07/2017 - Present

Program Webpage: https://www.library.vcu.edu/services/faculty/course-content/

Scope: Affordable course content, including cost-free course content and OER

Primary OER Strategy: OER Adoption

Secondary OER Strategies: OER Adaptation, OER Pedagogy, OER Publication

Unit Housing the Program:

Library

Program Partners:

• Academic/Information Technology
• Assistive Technology or Disability Services Office
• Campus Store
• E-Learning/Distance Education
• Teaching and Learning Center

Source of Program Funding:

• Library’s general operating budget

Funding from Library Departments:

• Scholarly Communications

Total Program Funding to Date: $ 40,000

Total Student Savings to Date: $ 320,000

Incentives Offered by the Program:

• Financial incentives (grants, stipends)
• Instructional design assistance
• Technical assistance

Conditions: Recipients are required to openly license and freely share resources created or adapted

Total amount of incentive grants awarded to date: $ 18,750

Total number of incentive grants awarded to date: 7

Typical amount of each grant: $ 2,500

In the fall of 2017, VCU Libraries created a new type of student position, the Affordable Course Content Assistant, with the following responsibilities:

--Advance affordable course content projects, including the Affordable Course
Content Award program
--Identify opportunities for affordable course content adoption on campus,
especially among high-enrollment courses
--Identify and promote applicable library resources for use as course content
--Assist in the development and implementation of an outreach plan to faculty,
administration, and students
--Assist in tracking affordable course content adoption on campus, measuring
student savings and academic success, and communicating impact
--Research best practices and emerging opportunities in affordable course content
initiatives

Duration: 09/2017 - Present

Program Webpage: https://www.library.vcu.edu/services/faculty/course-content/

Scope: Affordable course content, including cost-free course content and OER

Primary OER Strategy: OER Awareness

Secondary OER Strategies: OER Adaptation, OER Adoption, OER Curation, OER Publication, OER Review/Assessment

Unit Housing the Program:

Library

Source of Program Funding:

• Library’s general operating budget

Funding from Library Departments:

• Scholarly Communications

Incentives Offered by the Program:

• Not applicable

Go To Resource

A guide on affordable course content, with a main focus on open educational resources, including how to find, evaluate, adapt, and author OER.

Resource Permissions:
CC BY NC SA

Resource Citation:
Miller, H. Affordable Course Content. Retrieved from http://guides.library.vcu.edu/oer/introduction