We are excited to kick off Open Education Week with the announcement of the Provost’s Awards for Open Educational Resources. Award support totaling $98,000 will be provided to fourteen faculty.
The awards recognize UConn faculty and instructors who have committed to the creation, adaptation, adoption, and review of Open Educational Resources in their courses for a minimum of two years.
The awardees are:
Emma Bojinova, Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics, ARE Principles of Agricultural and Resource Economics. Approximately 225 students annually will use an online textbook published through OpenStax.
Ellen Carillo, Department of English, English 1010: Seminar in Academic Writing. Approximately 1,000 students annually will use an open access book she has written.
Joseph DePasquale, Department of Chemistry, Chem 1227Q and Chem 1228Q. Approximately 650 students annually will have access to ancillary materials created by Dr. DePasquale and published through OpenStax.
Challa Kumar, Department of Chemistry, Chem: 3563/3564. Approximately 200 students annually will use an online textbook and ancillary materials written by Dr. Kumar and published through OpenStax.
Ed Neth, Department of Chemistry, General Chemistry. Approximately 2,000 student annually have begun using the Atoms First Chemistry book written by Dr. Neth and published through OpenStax.
Amit Savkar & Andrew Jaramillo, Department of Mathematics, Pre-calculus. Approximately 600 students annually will use an online textbook and ancillary materials written by Dr. Savkar and Dr. Jaramillo and published through OpenStax.
Ambar Sengupta & Alexander Teplyaev, Department of Mathematics, Math 3160: Probability. Approximately 500 students will have access to a new online probability textbook spearheaded by Dr. Teplyaev in collaboration with the Mathematics Department.
Alexia Smith, Department of Anthropology, Anthropology 1500: Great Discoveries in Archaeology. Approximately 250 students annually will use a combination of open access resources.
Katherine Whitaker, Cara Battersby & Jonathan Trump, Astronomy Department, Phys 1025: Intro to Astronomy. Approximately 100 students annually will use an online textbook published through OpenStax.
And finally, the School of Nursing, led by Carol Polifroni, will aggregate multiple videos used for simulation lab work through a site license saving over $30,000 annually.
Recipients will participate in sharing their experiences in a variety of ways, including conferences and symposia hosted by UConn to discuss how they developed these materials, and provide opportunities to distribute them to those teaching in public and private institutions across the state. Vice Provosts Martha Bedard and Sally Reis, in a statement about the variety of awards, expressed their appreciation to all faculty who are using open education materials and considering ways to reduce textbook costs for our students. For all faculty interested in ways to reduce textbook costs and in incentives to redesign courses using OER materials, additional information can be found at http://open.uconn.edu/