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2025 Teaching with OER Grant: A partnership between TMU Libraries and the CELT

About the Teaching with OER Grant

TMU Libraries and the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) are pleased to announce a joint Teaching with OER Grant to encourage the creation and adoption of open educational resources (OER). OER are learning materials that are openly licensed such that they are freely available to be adapted, copied, and shared. OER can be: courses, modules, textbooks, multimedia, assessments, and supplementary materials. The inclusion of OER in first year courses and large enrollment classes is a proactive step to address the burden of further rising textbook costs and will significantly improve access of TMU’s students to the required learning materials.

This grant advances the University’s priorities to foster an innovation ecosystem and ensure excellence in student learning experiences, and builds on TMU Libraries’ digital initiatives, expertise in Open Access and Open Education Resource publishing and dissemination, and academic priorities of access and openness.The grant will also be supported by CELT’s Digital Learning Team (DL) which will provide pedagogical / instructional design and multimedia production services.

Objectives of the Teaching with OER Grant:

  • Support faculty members in the creation, revision and adoption of open textbooks and other OER materials for integration into a course.
  • Create high quality ancillary materials to support the textbook that has been funded.
  • Increase the use of open textbooks and other OER materials at the University resulting in pedagogical innovation, enhanced access for students, and reduced textbook and class material costs.

What Sets This Grant Apart:

In addition to the grant’s monetary value of $15,000, this grant also provides the following:

Integration into your TMU course: This grant requires that the proposed OER is tied to a course. Through collaboration with the DL team at CELT, you can better ensure that the OER serves your course design, assessments, and activities. The DL team can leverage relationships with other units on campus to help you deliver an OER that is tailored to a TMU context.

Expert collaborators : Unlike most OER grants, this partnership grant bundles in development support. Grant recipients will work in partnership with the DL team, and will have full access to their expertise and services. This includes priority access to CELT’s studio plus pedagogical and instructional design consulting, graphic design, and video production. 

Cost savings on production: With so many services included, money from the grant can be redirected to other costs, such as research assistance, copy editing, and any additional support required beyond standard production needs.

Grant Criteria and Deliverables

Eligibility

Lead instructors responsible for textbook selection for courses with an expected enrolment of at least 100 students. 100-level and 200-level courses will be prioritized.

Criteria:

An OER created to replace the current textbook in first year undergraduate courses or large enrollment classes (>100 students). This will either include developing a completely new OER or significantly redesigning an existing text heavy OER to include interactive multimedia elements. This OER will be developed for and housed within the Library’s Pressbooks platform. In addition, the grant will be used to create ancillary teaching materials such as assessments, test banks and handouts.

Grant Value: $15,000 

Grant Duration: up to 2 years

Number of Grants available: 1

Deliverables:

  1. Creation or Adaptation of an OER Textbook
    • This grant is for creation or adaptation of an Open Educational textbook in the Library Pressbooks and its subsequent pilot use in a classroom, for a high enrolment 100 or 200 level course. Grant amounts will be dependent on an analysis of the amount of creation or adaptation needed to create the textbook. For examples of the Library Pressbooks OER textbooks, see the list of books on the Library’s publishing site. 
  2. Ancillary Resource Creation (Slides, Test Banks, Videos)
    • This grant will also be used to create high quality digital ancillary material that can accompany the OER textbook created . Resources that can be supported by the grant include instructor slides, test-banks, quizzes and videos for example. Pedagogical, multimedia, and studio services will be provided by CELT’s DL team.

Important Dates

Evaluation Criteria

Proposals will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

  • Curation and customization of OER that will be freely and openly shared within TMU and beyond
  • Impact on student experience, including high-quality materials, maximum access, open and innovative pedagogy, and cost savings to students
  • OER creation specifically intended for course integration that would benefit from instructional design and development support from CELT 
  • Improve discipline/subject OER coverage in higher education for large enrolment courses
  • Complete and viable budget and project outcomes, consistent with project objectives and appropriate administrative approval from your Chair or supervisor as necessary
  • Foster commitment to building equity, community and inclusion, advance the TRC Calls to Action, and alignment with TMU’s Academic Plan and priorities

Guidelines for Applicants

  • Complete the Application form by Sept 30th, 2025. Proposals must be submitted via this link prior to the deadline.
  • Selection Process: Proposals will be evaluated according to an established assessment rubric based on the criteria noted above. An OER Grant Review Committee with representation from the Library and the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching,  will consider all applications.
  • Funds will be available once a detailed budget is approved by TMU Libraries OER Grant Review Committee. Funding conditions:
    • Funds may be used to pay student and non-student salaries and benefits. 
    • Funds cannot be used for:
      • Travel costs
      • Wages for faculty, regularly assigned teaching assistants, or staff members who would normally be employed by the university. This includes the applicants themselves.
      • Faculty teaching release
    • This is not an equipment or software fund. However, if the substance of the project requires such purchases, it may be considered if it is demonstrated that it is unavailable on campus and is instrumental to the project on a case-by-case approved basis.
    • Funds will be managed through the Library. Any unspent funds will be returned to the Library.

Reporting and Expectations

As part of accepting this grant, we ask that you: 

  • Attend a mandatory OER 2025 Kick-off and Onboarding meeting.
  • Meet with the Partnership team from TMU Libraries and CELT to confirm your final budget, and receive onboarding training. 
  • Participate  in a future community of practice with the CELT and TMU Libraries 
  • Submit a mid-term report by Nov 1. 2026, which will require budgetary reporting.
  • Submit a final summary report — in either written or video interview format — to be published and archived on the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching website within 2 months after the resource is first used in a course. For example, if the OER is deployed first in a Winter semester, the summary report will be due by the end of June. This final summary report will detail both the process and impact of the OER, including results from student feedback.
  • Present project results at the TMU Learning and Teaching Conference in May 2026 and/or May 2027.
  • Present during Open Education Week in March 2026 and/or March 2027/and or after the completion of the project March 2028
  • All non-consumable items purchased with the awarded funds will remain the property of Toronto Metropolitan University.
  • Intellectual property will be governed by the provisions of the collective agreement between the University and the Faculty Association.
  • Ensure that all project materials are designed with accessibility in mind 
  • All deliverables must be submitted to the OER Grant Committee no later than Nov. 1st 2027. 
  • All materials created from the OER grant are preferably under a Creative Commons licence that allows adaptation such as  Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 license, or a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC 4.0 license and indicate that they were funded by the TMU Libraries and CELT Teaching with OER Grant.Projects that include Indigenous knowledge  can chose a more restrictive Creative Commons licence type that excludes adaptation. 
  • Grant recipients are required to credit TMU Libraries and CELT Teaching with OER Grant in any publications, conference proceedings, or media appearances resulting from the funded project.

Contact

For help with your research idea and technical assistance submitting an application, email Ann Ludbrook, TMU Libraries aludbrook@torontomu.ca and/or Jason Matthew/CELT jason.matthew@torontomu.ca