CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — UPEI’s Robertson Library, in partnership with the province and the UPEI Student Union, has created a program to support the creation, adaptation, or peer review of open education resources (OER) at UPEI to lower the cost of learning materials for students.
Textbook and other learning resource costs can contribute significantly to student debt. A proven method to reduce costs and barriers to learning for students is the use of open textbooks and other types of OERs. One of the student union's policy priorities for 2018/2019 was an open textbook pilot project to reduce the cost of accessing educational resources.
As a result of the student union’s efforts, the open education resources development program at UPEI has been created.
The funding program will run through 2020 and will be administered by the Robertson Library.
It provides a variety of funding opportunities, including an open textbook grant to support the development of a new open textbook on a topic that is currently not covered by an existing open textbook, an open textbook adaptation grant to support the adaptation of one or more open textbooks to create a new version or edition of an open textbook, a supplementary resources grant to support the creation of ancillary materials for existing open textbooks, including, but not limited to test banks, slide decks or interactive media, for an open textbook or other open education resource or an honoraria for open textbook peer reviews to support individuals completing a formal peer review of an existing open textbook.
The funding is available to any instructor of a credit course at UPEI and either an individual or a team can apply. For more information, see library.upei.ca/oerprogram.
