Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching materials published under an open intellectual property license that permits certain kinds of reuse, revision, and remixing. Not only are OER customizable, but students benefit directly from free, immediate, and permanent access to high-quality educational materials. Since 2013, Maricopa Millions has funded the development and piloting of more than twenty complete courses using OER. During that time, we estimate that faculty across the district have saved their students more than $11 million by choosing to use low-cost/no-cost course materials (including OER) in place of costly traditional textbooks. Many of the highest enrollment courses have already been funded by Maricopa Millions, so the need for the development of complete courses has diminished and the project’s focus now shifts to empowering faculty to revise, remix, enhance, and expand upon the open content in the Maricopa Millions catalog.

Maricopa Millions has invested in a new, digital textbook creation platform called the Maricopa Open Digital (MOD) Press. This academic year, we are offering the Maricopa Millions 2.Open MOD Press Grants for faculty to develop MOD Pressbooks. This will be the only Maricopa Millions grants issued this academic year.

Explore: Maricopa Open Digital (MOD) Press

In general, proposals will identify a specific Pressbook or OER resource and describe how the existing Pressbook or OER resource will be modified or added into a MOD Pressbook. All proposals should identify a funding tier appropriate to the work being proposed; funding (in part or in full) for the proposed project will be based on the tier awarded by determination of the OER Steering Committee. The maximum award for a Maricopa Millions 2.Open MOD Press grant is $3000 for an individual or $2,500 per person on a team, up to $7500 for a team of three. You only need to submit one proposal per team. Preference is given to applicants who can demonstrate basic OER knowledge, for example by having taken Maricopa Millions OER workshops or received equivalent certifications; for teams of up to three individuals, preference is given to cross-college, cross-functional, and/or cross-disciplinary projects.

Grants will be awarded at the end of October, the end of November, and the end of January or until funding is exhausted.
The final deadline to submit a proposal is midnight on January 20, 2020.
You can only apply for one MOD Press Development Grant per academic year.
All final projects are due by midnight on April 30, 2021.
Payment will be disbursed in May after the final project has been submitted.
Failure to successfully complete your project by the deadline will result in the forfeiting of all funds.
All final projects will be reviewed for Gold Seal status during the summer of 2021 and an official MOD Press Celebration announcement will be shared district-wide at the beginning of the fall 2021 semester.

Read the Maricopa Open Digital (MOD) Press Grant Development document for more information about this grant opportunity including:

Steps to Apply
Proposal Tiers
Proposal Rubric
MOD Press Gold Seal Requirements
Review Calendar

Apply Today

Please email the faculty-in-residence OER Coordinators, Sian Proctor and Matthew Bloom with any questions.