Western Oregon University provides stipends for faculty to adopt, adapt, or create OER for their courses. The primary goal of WOU's OER Stipend Program is to significantly reduce the cost of textbooks and other course materials for students, yet provide access to high-quality, pedagogically creative, open educational content for teaching, learning, and research.
All tenure track and non tenure track faculty are invited to apply for this competitive stipend, which is administered by the WOU Textbook Affordability Committee and Hamersly Library & Academic Innovation. Funds ranging from $1000 to $4000 will be awarded based on the following characteristics:
Stipends will be awarded in three different categories:
1. Adoption of Existing OER Material ($1000)
Adopt an existing OER with little revision to the content.
2. Adaptation of Existing OER and/or Creating New Supplemental Material ($2000)
Adapt existing OER with major revisions, or develop custom course content from multiple OER and/or original open content in order to support learning objectives not met by existing open resources.
3. Creation and Development of New OER Material(s) ($4000) Not available for the 2024-2025 academic year
Create a substantially new OER where it is possible to demonstrate that quality resources are not currently available to meet learning objectives.
If selected, awardees will commit to the following:
Complete the WOU OER online training course.
Take part in two additional OER-related professional development opportunities.
Submit final syllabus, course plan, and list of materials.
Teach the course using OER in all assigned sections for at least one academic year or coordinate the use of the materials in assigned sections for at least one academic year (2025-2026).
Share all work under a Creative Commons license.
Complete a faculty survey and assist in administering a student survey relating to the use of OER during the course.
Alert both the Registrar’s Office and WOU Bookstore regarding the use of the OER in each quarter it’s used.
The links below will help you apply for an OER Stipend:
OER Stipend Application (Qualtrics Survey)
Use this link to go to the WOU OER Stipend Application. The questions for the application can be found below.
OER Stipend Application Questions (Google Doc)
Use this link to go to the application questions in a Google Doc. You can use it to answer the questions before filling out the application.
This guide is adapted from Michigan State University (MSU) Libraries OER Program Guide. Both the MSU Libraries OER Program Guide and this guide (OER @WOU) are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
