Open Educational Resources

Open Educational Resources

The Hewlett Foundation defines Open Educational Resources (OER) as:

“…teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge.”

Why OER at UCCS?

Faculty who initially participated in the Open CU Initiative share their reasons for why they chose to implement OER in their courses.

2025–2026 CDHE Open Educational Resources (OER) SUCCESS Program

The OER initiative continues at UCCS through the support of the UCCS Campus Store. The funding source has shifted from the Colorado Department of Higher Education (CDHE) because of the recent revision of its OER Request for Proposals (RFP) rules that specify that “institutions with automatic textbook billing programs, often referred to as inclusive access and equitable access programs, are not eligible for the grant type 4: general incentive fund during this cycle.” This has resulted in UCCS being ineligible to participate in Open CU and receive CDHE grant funding to support the OER SUCCESS Program at UCCS.

Because OER are a critical component of TAAP in keeping overall costs of course material lower for all UCCS students, the UCCS Campus Store is subsidizing the UCCS OER SUCCESS Program. This results in the continuous offering of stipends to faculty participating in the Program to increase awareness, adoption, and creation of OER on campus.

Target Courses

  • High enrollment
  • High DFW rate
  • High textbook cost
  • Concurrent enrollment courses for high school students
  • Courses with Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion or Social Justice themes, and courses aimed at the incorporation or creation of OER materials with this focus

Open Educational Resources (OER) SUCCESS Program
The OER initiative is an inclusive part of the OER SUCCESS program. Each section of the OER initiative is incorporated into one or more of the three levels or courses the OER SUCCESS program offers and includes:

  • OER Awareness/Review
    1 faculty member will earn the OER Re-user badge and a $500 stipend for locating, evaluating, and planning for OER implementation into a course or program.
  • Educator Adoption/Redesign
    1 faculty member will earn the OER Remixer badge and a $1,000 stipend for adopting OER in their courses, engaging in course redesign, evaluating the effectiveness of their OER pilots, and sharing their evaluation results.
  • Adaptation and Creation
    7 faculty members will earn the OER Redistributor badge plus a $2,000 stipend for adapting/creating OER, licensing the created OER, implementing the OER into a course, and evaluating its effectiveness.

Each OER adopter and creator is also asked to participate in a yearly panel discussion at either the UCCS Teaching & Learning Conference in January or in GIFT (Great Ideas for Teaching) Exchanges throughout the academic year to encourage others through their example.

CDHE OER Grant

UCCS received funding for the second year of a two-year grant from the Colorado Department of Higher Education for a multi-campus proposal, "Open CU: Expanding a Successful Multiyear OER Initiative".

Target Courses

  • High enrollment
  • High DFW rate
  • High textbook cost
  • Concurrent enrollment courses for high school students
  • Courses with Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion or Social Justice themes, and courses aimed at the incorporation or creation of OER materials with this focus

Open Educational Resources (OER) SUCCESS Program
The OER initiative is an inclusive part of the OER SUCCESS program. Each section of the OER initiative is incorporated into one or more of the three levels or courses the OER SUCCESS program offers and includes:

  • Educator Adoption/Redesign
    3 faculty members will earn the OER Remixer badge and a $1,000 stipend for adopting OER in their courses, engaging in course redesign, evaluating the effectiveness of their OER pilots, and sharing their evaluation results.
  • Adaptation and Creation
    5 faculty members will earn the OER Redistributor badge plus a $2,240 stipend for adapting/creating OER, licensing the created OER, implementing the OER into a course, and evaluating its effectiveness.

Each OER adopter and creator is also asked to participate in a yearly panel discussion at either the UCCS Teaching & Learning Conference in January or in GIFT (Great Ideas for Teaching) Exchanges throughout the academic year to encourage others through their example.

UCCS received funding for a fourth and fifth year from the Colorado Department of Higher Education for a multi-campus proposal, "Open CU: Expanding a Successful Multiyear OER Initiative".

Target Courses

  • High enrollment
  • High DFW rate
  • High textbook cost
  • Concurrent enrollment courses for high school students
  • Courses with Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion or Social Justice themes, and courses aimed at the incorporation or creation of OER materials with this focus

Open Educational Resources (OER) SUCCESS Program
The OER initiative is an inclusive part of the OER SUCCESS program. Each section of the OER initiative is incorporated into one or more of the three levels or courses the OER SUCCESS program offers and includes:

  • Awareness and Review
    6 faculty members earned the OER Reuser badge and a $250 stipend for completing the first section of the OER SUCCESS Part 1 course, a self-paced tutorial to gain awareness of, search for, and evaluate OER while planning for implementation.
  • Educator Adoption/Redesign
    4 faculty members earned the OER Remixer badge and a $1,000 stipend for adopting OER in their courses, engaging in course redesign, evaluating the effectiveness of their OER pilots, and sharing their evaluation results.
  • Adaptation and Creation
    3 faculty members earned the OER Redistributor badge plus a $1,000 stipend for adapting/creating OER, licensing the created OER, implementing the OER into a course, and evaluating its effectiveness.
  • Full OER SUCCESS Program
    2 faculty members earned the OER Re-user, Remixer, and Redistributor badges and a $2,250 stipend for completing the entire OER SUCCESS Program and adopting or adapting/creating OER for a course.

Outcomes

  • OER were adopted in 15 courses over the 2021-2022 academic year
  • Nearly 800 students were enrolled in these courses
  • Those students realized over $63,000 in savings as a result of using OER
  • Breakdown by course characteristics:
    • High enrollment - 7
    • High DFW - 3
    • High textbook cost - 11
    • Concurrent enrollment for high school students - 2
    • Courses with DEI - 8

UCCS received funding for a third year from the Colorado Department of Higher Education for a multi-campus proposal, "Open CU: Expanding a Successful and Sustainable OER Initiative", to continue promoting the awareness, review, evaluation, adoption, adaptation, and creation of OER.

Target Courses

  • High enrollment
  • High DFW rate
  • High textbook cost
  • Concurrent enrollment courses for high school students
  • Courses with Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion or Social Justice themes, and courses interested in incorporating or creating OER materials with this focus

Open Educational Resources (OER) SUCCESS Program
The OER initiative is an inclusive part of the OER SUCCESS program. Each section of the OER initiative is incorporated into one or more of the three levels or courses the OER SUCCESS program offers and includes:

  • Awareness and Review
    5 faculty members earned the OER Reuser badge and a $250 stipend for completing the first section of the OER SUCCESS Part 1 course, a self-paced tutorial to gain awareness of, search for, and evaluate OER
  • Educator Adoption/Redesign
    6 faculty members earned the OER Remixer badge and a $1,000 stipend for adopting OER in their courses, engaging in course redesign, evaluating the effectiveness of their OER pilots, and sharing their evaluation results
  • Adaptation and Creation
    3 faculty members earned the OER Redistributor badge plus a $2,000 stipend for adapting/creating OER, licensing the created OER, implementing the OER into a course, and evaluating its effectiveness

Outcomes

  • OER were adopted in 15 courses over the 2021-2022 academic year
  • Nearly 1,100 students were enrolled in these courses
  • Those students realized over $82,000 in savings as a result of using OER

UCCS received funding for a second year from the Colorado Department of Higher Education for a multi-campus proposal, "Open CU: Expanding a Successful OER Initiative", to continue promoting the awareness, review, evaluation, and adoption of OER, and further to promote the adaptation and creation of OER.

Target Courses

  • High enrollment
  • High DFW rate
  • High textbook cost
  • Concurrent enrollment courses for high school students

Open Educational Resources (OER) SUCCESS Program
The OER initiative is an inclusive part of the OER SUCCESS program. Each section of the OER initiative is incorporated into one or more of the three levels or courses the OER SUCCESS program offers and includes:

  • Awareness and Review
    3 faculty members earned the OER Reuser badge and a $250 stipend for completing the first section of the OER SUCCESS Part 1 course, a self-paced tutorial to gain awareness of, search for, and evaluate OER
  • Educator Adoption/Redesign
    8 faculty members earned the OER Remixer badge and a $1,000 stipend for adopting OER in their courses, engaging in course redesign, evaluating the effectiveness of their OER pilots, and sharing their evaluation results
  • Adaptation and Creation
    4 faculty members earned the OER Redistributor badge plus a $2,000 stipend for adapting/creating OER, licensing the created OER, implementing the OER into a course, and evaluating its effectiveness

Outcomes

  • OER were adopted in 15 courses over the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 semesters
  • Over 1,000 students were enrolled in these courses
  • Those students realized nearly $120,000 in savings as a result of using OER

UCCS received funding from the Colorado Department of Higher Education for a multi-campus proposal, "Open CU: Building a Sustainable OER Initiative Across the University of Colorado", to promote the awareness, review, evaluation, and adoption or adaptation of OER.

  • 30 faculty members each received $250 stipends for completing the OER Jumpstart self-paced tutorial to gain awareness of, search for, and evaluate OER
  • 9 faculty members each received $1,000 stipends for adopting OER in their courses, engaging in course redesign, evaluating the effectiveness of their OER pilots, and sharing their evaluations
    • OER were adopted in 13 sections over the Fall 2019 and Spring 2020 semesters
    • Over 430 students were enrolled in these courses
    • Those students realized over $44,000 in savings as a result of using OER

OER Resources