The Maryland Open Source Textbook (M.O.S.T.) Initiative is pleased to announce a Request for Proposals for the 2020 OER Grant Program. For 2020, M.O.S.T. is seeking proposals for two grant programs. Learn more below. 

Faculty OER Mini-Grant Program
The Faculty OER Mini-Grant Program supports faculty efforts to increase access, affordability, and achievement for students at Maryland’s 2-year and 4-year public higher education institutions through the incorporation of open educational resources (OER) into teaching practice.

The 2020 M.O.S.T. faculty mini-grants will provide recipients with unique opportunities to engage in communities of practice related to teaching with OER, creation of OER in high-need areas, and evaluation of OER use in relation to student success. 

Available grants for 2020:

• Adopt/Adapt OER ($1,000 grant + Participation in the M.O.S.T. Teaching Fellows Program);
• Create OER ($2,000 grant + Participation in the M.O.S.T. Textbook Success Fellowship Program); and
• Evaluate OER ($3,000 grant + Dedicated Coaching)

Institutional OER Grant Program
The M.O.S.T. initiative is also seeking proposals for a new Institutional OER Grant Program, which supports strategic institutional efforts to increase access, affordability, and achievement for students at Maryland’s 2-year and 4-year public higher education institutions through more systemic incorporation of open educational resources (OER) into teaching practice. 

For 2020, two institutions will be awarded $20,000 grants to support significant advances in OER adoption, scaling, and sustainability in support of student success. In addition, grantees will receive strategic planning and implementation support for their projects from M.O.S.T., as needed, in the form of consultations and regular check-ins. 

Institutions applying for these grants should be able to articulate a vision for how OER will help them achieve strategic goals and explain how the campus will nurture and sustain this next-level work after the funding period ends.

Access and Review Request for Proposals

All proposals must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. ET on Friday, February 28, 2020.  

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Informational Webinar
Join us on Thursday, January 23, 2020 from 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. ET for an Informational Webinar to learn more about the grant requirements and expectations for successful grants. We will also answer any questions about the grants at that time. Register for the Informational Webinar

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Please feel free to share this information with interested faculty and staff. If you have any questions, please reach out to us at most@usmd.edu. 

Thank you for your support in increasing access, affordability, and achievement for all Maryland higher education students through open educational resources (OER).
 

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Blackboard course shells for WT2020 and SP2020 were created on December 2, 2019.

The Ultra Course Preview setting is again enabled in WT/SP2020 courses to allow faculty adoption with an updated support schedule of Ultra (see prior announcement). The Ultra Course Preview tool allows faculty to convert an existing Original course and see what it looks like in Ultra. 

• Related FAQ: How do I preview my course as an Ultra course?
• Learn what's new in Ultra in 2019

About Course Creation

Bb shells for WT2020 and SP2020 are available for all courses (designated as lecture, lab, field or discussion) listed in the UMBC Schedule of Classes (SOC), provided that there is an instructor of record listed. As new course sections and/or instructors are added to the SOC by Department Scheduling Coordinators, corresponding Bb shells are automatically generated overnight. 

• If you are an instructor, and your name is not associated with the course you are teaching in the SOC, please see your Departmental Scheduling Coordinator to resolve the issue. Once you are listed in the SOC, your Bb course shell will be created automatically. 
• If you and your Department Scheduling Coordinator believe you are correctly assigned as the instructor of record in the SOC and you do not see your course shell in Blackboard, please submit a Request Tracker (RT) ticket via my.umbc.edu/help.
• If you need a Bb shell for a research or independent study course, please submit a new course request.

Instructors who teach multiple sections of the same course will find those enrollments merged into one Bb course shell. These sections may be split upon request by an RT ticket, which we recommend submitting at least one week before the semester starts, if not as soon as courses are created in Blackboard.

Student enrollment in Bb mirrors the official registration in SA and updates hourly. However, courses are not accessible to students by default until the instructor of record makes them available.

As always, if you have any questions, please consider the following options:

• Check our extensive FAQ collection
• What’s new in Ultra? | Known Issues
• Open a ticket via RT
• Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups
• Sign up for a webinar & other training 
• Request a consult with instructional technology staff

As part of our ongoing commitment to security, DoIT's Unix Infrastructure group will be conducting its quarterly system patching on Friday, November 15th between 5:00pm-6:00pm for the RT system.

Please contact me if you have any questions.

Joe Kirby ,  Assistant Vice President, Business Systems
Division of Information Technology (DoIT) 
Support Response -   http://www.umbc.edu/doit 
Administration 627
Office - 410-455-3020 
Email - kirby@umbc.edu