UTA Cares Grant Opens New Learning Opportunities

Making knowledge accessible to more people is the goal of the UTA Libraries Cares Grant Program. The grant program allows faculty members to create low-cost or no-cost materials for students to use in the classroom. 

Jessica McClean, Open Educational Resources Director, stated that since its founding in 2017, 43 grants have been awarded to faculty members, with nine awarded this year. Interest in the program has increased since the shift to online learning was made at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“I think many faculty members have become interested in creating their own digital textbooks and now those ideas are coming to fruition, which is exciting,” Jessica said. “I think that our nine projects this year are varied and unique. Each of them will be a great example of what is possible in OER.” 

 There are three categories within the UTA Libraries Cares Grant Program. 

• The first category is the Affordable Adoption Stipend. This grant provides funding for faculty members to redesign a course by incorporating low-or zero-cost course materials. Adoption projects not only focus on selecting appropriate, and affordable resources but also modify teaching materials such as syllabi, assignments and exams. 

• The second category is the OER Modification grants. The modification grant supports authors in customizing existing resources to produce a new OER work. Some of these projects include making significant revisions of an existing OER work or creating a new one by piecing together chapters from multiple resources. 

• The final category is the OER Creation Grant. This grant supports the production of a textbook or other teaching resources that consists of mostly original content. 

Jessica shared that the grant recipients’ projects will benefit not just the UTA community but will have a global impact. 

“One of the projects (funded this year) that is pretty exciting is going to be a book of bilingual meteorology terms that Professor Julian Rodriguez is creating. He is collaborating with ‘The Weather Channel’ to produce this material,” Jessica said. “It is an exciting project, and the grant funding will help him produce that work.” 

Applications are currently being accepted for the next grant award period until Oct. 9. People can learn more about the grant program, requirements, and how to apply online at https://bit.ly/44UpO6a.  

Questions about the UTA Libraries Cares Grant Program can be emailed to Jessica at OER@uta.edu for more information.