The UC Merced Library invites faculty (senate and non-senate) to apply for funding to eliminate or minimize course costs for students.
The call for proposals in spring 2024 for summer & fall 2024 courses will either accept applications that 1) eliminate course material costs or 2) reduce or minimize course material costs within certain parameters. For proposals that reduce costs, they must meet these parameters:
Program details below highlight criteria that impact application evaluation. This grant is available for both undergraduate and graduate courses.
The elimination or reduction of course costs for students may be supported by the adoption of Open Educational Resources (OER), use of UC Merced Library licensed electronic resources, and/or low-cost resources.
Instructors who receive awards are required to participate in assessment activities related to the effectiveness of the Zero-Cost Course Materials (ZCCM) / Low-Cost Course Materials (LCCM) grant.
This award cycle is for proposals that will be implemented in summer or fall 2024 courses. An additional call will be distributed in fall 2024 for spring 2025 courses.
Removing the financial burden of purchasing educational materials can have a significant impact on student engagement and success. The negative impacts of high textbook costs are well-documented. See Impact of Textbooks Costs on our guide.
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Eliminating the cost of course materials to $0 can be achieved
1) through the adoption or modification of Open Educational Resources (OER) or
2) by combining OER and library-licensed resources.
Reducing the cost of course materials -- to $40 or less for existing courses OR $20.00 or less for new courses -- can be achieved through one or more of these strategies:
1) through the adoption or modification of Open Educational Resources (OER);
2) by using library-licensed resources;
3) by selecting low-cost options.
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Open Educational Resources (OER) ensure that students have access to course materials, free of cost, before the first day of class. OER materials can be customized to the teaching style of the professor and to the learning outcomes of a course.
OER are defined as teaching, learning, and research resources that are in the public domain or released under a license that permits free use and repurposing. Examples of OER include complete textbooks, teaching materials, texts, and questions banks while library-licensed electronic resources may include journal articles, ebooks, streaming video, available data sets etc.
Resource: OER Search Tools, Respositories, and Collections
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Course materials costs include items such as books, articles, course readers, practice question banks, polling software etc. that you require students to have for the course. For the purposes of this program, course materials do not include lab supplies like safety glasses.
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For grant eligibility, low-cost means that the combined cost of course materials to the students is either $40.00 or less in an existing course (with significant cost savings over prior offerings as outlined below) or $20.00 or less in a new course. This combination of course materials may include items such as textbooks, workbooks, streaming media, lab manuals, online homework platforms etc.
The $40 or $20 threshold applies to a class regardless the number of credits and is based on the new book price at the campus bookstore or directly charged by the publisher, whichever is lower. However, the highest priced format (e.g. print) must be at or under this threshold.
Lumen Learning titles are under $40 and leverage OER but with tech integration. These titles may be an option for your course.
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Faculty can apply for one of the following awards for replacing commercial materials with zero-cost or low-cost resources.
Eliminate Course Costs for Students
1. $1000 one-time award for the adoption of an existing OER and/or use of Library licensed materials to eliminate course material costs for students.
2. $1,500 one-time award for modifying an existing OER to eliminate course materials costs for students. OER may be modified by editing or creating content such as additional chapters, modules, question banks, or lecture slides.
Reduce or Minimize Course Costs for Students
Course materials selected may include OER, Library licensed materials, and/or low-cost options.
3. $1,000 one-time award for reducing course costs to $40.00 or less in an existing course. Note: This must involve at least a 30% reduction in course material costs over the last time the course was offered.
Example A: If the course previously required students to pay $60.00 for course materials and you are able to reduce it to $40.00, this would result in a 33% reduction in cost and would be eligible for funding.
Example B: If the course previously required students to pay $80.00 for course materials and you are able to reduce it to $32.00, this would result in a 60% reduction in cost and would be eligible for funding.
4. $1,000 one-time award for ensuring course material costs do not exceed $20.00 for a new course. Course materials selected may include OER, Library licensed materials, and/or low-cost options.
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Award funding may be used for technology, equipment, course-related costs and professional development. We are unable to directly compensate faculty for their time.
Funding for summer or fall 2024 courses is allocated after the award notification and must be used by June 30, 2025.
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Proposals can be submitted by UC Merced faculty (senate and non-senate). Applicants may submit as an individual or a team.
The UC Merced academic appointee must be the instructor of record teaching an undergraduate or graduate level course in the semester for which the funding is requested. This call for proposals (spring 2024) is for courses to be taught in summer 2024 OR fall 2024. Note: Another call will be issued in fall 2024 for spring 2025 courses.
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Priority will be given to proposals
In addition to these key criteria, we prioritize new applicants. Please consider the completeness and clarity of your application to be fully competitive.
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Faculty members awarded funding will receive support from the Library and CETL to assist with the discovery and evaluation of OER, zero-cost and low-cost materials, and their integration into the curriculum.
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A librarian will coordinate with you to request a short amount of time to obtain students' feedback on the use of no-cost or low-cost materials in your course.
When possible, the library is also assessing impacts on student outcomes pre & post zero-cost or low-cost materials. Assessment activities evaluating the impact of the grant have been approved by UC Merced's Institutional Review Board.
This December 2023 article summarizes the program's assessment from 2019-2021.
Davidson Squibb, S., Salmon, E., & Yan, Y. (2023). Measuring the Impact of an Open Educational Resource and Library e-Resource Adoption Program Using the COUP Framework. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 24(4), 80–101. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v24i4.7420
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UC Merced's Newsroom featured the Zero-Cost Course Materials (ZCCM) pilot program in March 2022: "Grant Saves Students Thousands of Dollars in Textbook Costs".
Based on data through 2023, UC Merced students have saved a minimum of $440,000 on course material costs due to faculty adoption of zero-cost course materials. The article above also notes that UC Merced students in ZCCM courses demonstrated higher rates of course completion than students enrolled in previous sections with course material costs.
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The Zero-Cost Course Materials Grant started as a three-year pilot program initiated by the UC Merced Library and the Center for Engaged Teaching & Learning (CETL) in 2018. We acquired (summer 2022) funding from the Scholar Transformational Impact Fund to renew this program.
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The timeline below shows the important dates for the Zero-Cost / Low-Cost Course Materials Grant RFP.
Faculty with successful proposals will implement zero-cost or low-cost course materials during either the summer OR fall 2024 semester. There will be future calls for proposals. We anticipate distributing ~$5,000 in faculty grant awards each semester through spring 2025. However, this is dependent on the number of successful submissions per semester.
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Complete the updated application form (available in Box for download) and submit to library@ucmerced.edu by end of day, Monday, April 8, 2024.
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See this example of a completed and funded proposal kindly provided by a grant applicant. Note: The application has been updated slightly from this example.
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Information sessions about the grant will take place on the following dates via Zoom. Please bring any questions about the program or the application. Sessions are listed below with more details at our Library Calendar.
This guide includes additional information about OER and low-cost materials the impact of them on student learning https://libguides.ucmerced.edu/oer.
Contact Sara Davidson Squibb, AUL for Research & Engagement (sdavidson2@ucmerced.edu) for any questions about this grant program or Open Educational Resources (OER). She is happy to meet one-on-one with anyone who wants to ask questions or talk through their ideas.
| RFP Cycle | ZCCM Implemented | Course | Professor | Resource(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 2018 | Spring 2019 | Econ 10, Inferential Statistics | Jason Lee | Adoption of OpenStax Introductory Business Statistics |
| Fall 2018 | Spring 2019 | IH 206, GIS for World History | Karl Ryavec | Adoption of Mapping Political Economies over Time |
| Fall 2018 | Fall 2019 | Wri 1, Academic Writing | Catherine Koehler, Amy Fenstermaker | Updated curriculum using library licensed resources |
| Fall 2018 | Fall 2019 | Wri 10, Reading and Composition | Catherine Koehler, Amy Fenstermaker | Updated curriculum using library licensed resources |
| Spring 2019 | Fall 2019 | Phys 8L, Introductory Physics II Lab | Carrie Menke, Toni Stone, Kristina Callaghan, Stefanie Stepp | Creation of a new open lab manual |
| Spring 2019 | Fall 2019 | Phys 9L, Introductory Physics II Lab | Carrie Menke, Toni Stone, Kristina Callaghan, Stefanie Stepp | Creation of a new open lab manual |
| Spring 2019 | Spring 2020 | Econ 112, GIS for World Economic History | Rowena Gray, Karl Ryavec | Adoption of OER and library licensed materials |
| Fall 2019 | Spring 2020 | Econ 1, Introduction to Economics | Jason Lee | Adoption of OpenStax Principles of Economics |
| Fall 2019 | Fall 2020 | ME 140, Vibrations and Control | Jian-Qiao Sun | Development of an open textbook |
| Spring 2020 | Fall 2020 | Bio 001, Contemporary Biology | Petra Kranzfelder, Laura Beaster-Jones, Jennifer Manilay, Jessica Blois | Adoption of OpenStax Biology 2e |
| Spring 2020 | Fall 2020 | Math 131, Numerical Methods Science & Engineering | Erica Rutter | Modify Tea Time Numerical Analysis (OER) |
| Fall 2020 | Summer 2021 | Wri 100, Advanced Writing | Iris Ruiz | Adoption of OER and library licensed materials |
| Fall 2020 | Fall 2021 | CE 10, Surveying and Geomatics Fundamentals | Siddaiah Yarra | Adoption of OER materials; development of teaching materials |
| Spring 2021 | Fall 2021 | Soc 10, Statistics for Sociology | Camila Alvarez & Charlie Eaton | Development of free software tools, lecture slides, lesson modules, and interactive assignments for Du Boisian methods. |
| Spring 2021 | Fall 2021 | CSE 176, Introduction to Machine Learning | Miguel Carreria-Periñan | Development of a self-standing, open-access textbook. |
| Spring 2021 | Fall 2021 | ENGR 57, Statics and Dynamics | Siddaiah Yarra | Adopt an existing OER. |
| Spring 2021 | Fall 2021 | ENG/PHIL 121, Existentialism | Nigel Hatton | Use of Library e-resources and OER. |
| RFP Cycle | ZCCM Implemented | Course | Professor | Resources |
| Fall 2022 | Spring 2023 | PH 106 Health Policy | Susana Ramirez | Use of Library e-resources; Longest's Health Policymaking in the United States |
| Spring 2023 | Summer 2023 | ENGR 155 Engineering Economic Analysis | Siddaiah Yarra | Development of lecture slides and online quizzes via CatCourses |
| Spring 2023 | Fall 2023 | GEOG/HS 112, Sec. 01 GIS for World Economic History | Karl Ryavec | Created additional exercises requiring use of GIS data to expand the GIS Lab Manual series titled “Mapping Political Economics over Time”. This series of exercises is available in eScholarship. |
| Spring 2023 | Fall 2023 | MATH 21, Sec. 30 Calculus I for Physical Sciences and Engineering | Alexander Yatskar | Used Desmos graph animations and OpenStax textbook |
| Fall 2023 | Spring 2024 | ESS 002 Sustainability Science | Sylvain Masclin | |
| Fall 2023 | Spring 2024 | ECON 001 Introduction to Economics | Todd Sorensen | |
| Fall 2023 | Spring 2024 | ECON 121 Economics of Banking and Financial Institutions | Jason Lee | |
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