Welcome to the first in a series of posts highlighting affordable course materials and open education resources (OER) co-authored by:
April Hummons, Information Technology Librarian
Ashley McMullin, Associate University Librarian for Teaching, Research and Engagement
Sue Shultz, Business and Social Sciences Librarian
Open Education Week was established in 2012 by OE Global as a platform for sharing and celebrating activities and accomplishments. In the last few years, the DePaul University Library has marked this week by raising awareness of student affordability challenges and 
highlighting useful library resources and services that address this issue. This year we are delighted to recognize several DePaul University faculty who are actively working to reduce students’ educational costs by creating Open Educational Resources (OER). Please join us in celebrating Timothy French, Kyle Grice, Richard Niedziela, and Cathrine Southern from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Roxanne Spurlark from the School of Nursing for their work on the SCOERs Grant.
The DePaul University Library and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry recently received a $60,000 Illinois Support for Creation of Open Educational Resources (SCOERs) Grant. The grant was awarded to DePaul University, Roosevelt University and Harper College to collaboratively develop an open General, Organic and Biochemistry (GOB) textbook that will be implemented at the three institutions this year. This collaborative project is entitled Development and Implementation of Open-Access Problems and Activities for Health-Focused Chemistry Courses, and the textbook will be available to faculty at any institution to adopt, adapt or remix and will be free to all students who use it.
The grant was awarded by the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI). CARLI was awarded $1,080,000 for the Illinois SCOERs program and has distributed those funds to libraries and faculty across the state to develop open textbooks and their ancillary materials. The SCOERs program specifically targeted high enrollment, entry level courses which tend to have high cost textbooks and would have the greatest positive impact for students. Courses had to be relevant to “The Human Condition: Care, Development, and Lifespan” and include a 3D printing component.
If you would like to learn more about this project, several of the grant faculty will be presenting an overview of the project alongside other recipients of the grant on Thursday, March 9 beginning at noon. Registration is required for this online event.