Open Educational Resources (OER) Program

The MSU Libraries' OER Program provides incentives for instructors interested in adopting, adapting, or creating OER as an alternative to traditional textbooks and a pathway to increasing student success. For more information, please visit the OER Program web site.

Award applicants are strongly encouraged to meet with Linda Miles, OER Librarian, for a one-on-one project consultation before preparing your application.

Please contact Linda Miles, milesli3@msu.edu.

Applications for the 2025-26 OER Awards cycle will be due in October of 2025. More details, the call for applications, and application forms will be available on this page after in early September.

Award Categories

Adoption of Existing OER Awards

• This category entails identifying an existing openly licensed textbook or other course materials suitable for your intended course, reviewing materials to ensure congruence with course learning outcomes, ensuring that these materials have the quality and rigor to maintain the integrity of the course, and piloting the use of these materials in your classroom.
• The maximum award for this category is $1,000 per successful application.
• Winners also receive support and guidance from the OER Team as they locate, select, implement accessibility measures, and provide access to these materials for students.

Adaptation/Remix of OER Awards

• This category entails significant revision of existing OER course materials and/or remixing of material from multiple OERs that results in a new openly-licensed resource. Examples include: editing existing chapters of an open textbook, adding new materials from other sources, removing sections not appropriate, and/or bringing together content from several openly licensed sources.
• The maximum award for this category is $2,500 per successful application.
• Winners also receive support and guidance from the OER Team as they locate, select, implement accessibility measures, and provide access to these materials for students.

Creation of New OER Awards

• This category entails the creation of a completely new OER resource for a course by developing an open textbook and any supplemental materials (laboratory manuals, interactive exercises, homework prompts, learning components, etc.).
• The maximum award for this category is $4,000 per successful application.
• Winners also receive support and guidance from the OER Team as they develop and format content, implement accessibility measures, and provide access to these materials for students.

OER Ancillaries Awards

• This category entails the creation of curricular materials such as test question banks, "workbooks" or collections of interactive exercises, quizzes, slides, videos, or lesson plans.
• The maximum award for this category is $2,500 per successful application.
• Winners also receive support and guidance from the OER Team as they develop and format content, implement accessibility measures, and provide access to these materials for students.

Continuous Improvement Awards

• This category entails substantial improvement and revision of the OER resource(s) used in an existing course (for example, a new edition), or the replacement of an OER resource used previously with new or better OER materials.
• The maximum award for this category is $3,000 per successful application.
• Winners also receive support and guidance from the OER Team as they revise, develop, and format content, implement accessibility measures, and provide access to these materials for students.

Scaling Up OER Awards

• This category entails large-scale implementation of an existing OER resource across multiple sections of a course. The project must be slated to affect 1,000 or more students per year and requires departmental support and department-wide adoption of OER to all applicable sections of a course.
• The maximum award for this category is $5,000 per successful application.
• Winners also receive support and guidance from the OER Team as they manage the project, bring new instructors on board, implement accessibility measures, and provide access to the OER materials for students.