MA CC Go Open Grant Opportunity

This fall, North Shore Community College (NSCC) faculty will have the opportunity to apply for an Open Educational Resources (OER) grant sponsored by the Massachusetts Community Colleges Open Education Council. NSCC has been at the forefront of OER education, specifically through Academic Technology grants that have allowed faculty to develop courses with open content that have saved students over $60,000 in textbook costs. In addition, OER courses developed at NSCC have brought the best free content from the web directly into the classroom. This grant will make available more funding for courses in STEM programs and for prerequisite courses that support these programs.

More specific information regarding the grant and how to apply can be found in the links below.

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Have you heard about Open Educational Resources? 

• They are free, openly licensed teaching materials that can be used in lieu of your traditional college textbooks.
• They allow every student in your course access to all the course reading on the first day of your class.
• They allow you to customize your text based on your teaching style, the needs of your specific course, your course learning outcomes and more.
• They allow you to control when the material needs updating and what should be updated.
• Did you read the part where we said the materials are FREE for your students? 

Interested? Great- we have an exciting opportunity for you!

The newly formed Massachusetts Community Colleges Open Education Council, led by Northern Essex Community College (NECC) with membership from every MA community college, is seeking proposals to fund MA CC faculty work on OER projects. With proposal funds ranging from $300 - $2,500; options to adopt, adapt or build course “textbooks”; and support from the statewide council and local OER coordinator(s), this is an amazing opportunity to customize your course and make the materials your students NEED to be successful in your course available to them for free.

Not sure? Check out this video​ from NECC faculty on why they moved to OER for their course(s). In the last two academic years, these faculty and many others have participated in the Adopt Open project at NECC, which has resulted in a student savings of $450,000 in textbooks.

Visit the MA Community Colleges Statewide Initiative site to learn more about the Statewide CC OER Initiative. Then visit the MA CC Go Open Call for Proposals site for more details on applying for a grant - including levels of adoption, courses eligible for this funding, faculty planning worksheet, online application, and more. The first round of applications will be due October 1st. Note: While your course needs to be on the list to be eligible, it does not have to be listed at your particular college for you to apply with it.

In the meantime, if you have any questions, please email Larry Davis at ldavis@northshore.edu or Andrea Milligan at amilliga@northshore.edu.