The Secretary of State/Illinois State Library has awarded DePaul University Library a grant of $149,278 for “Open Educational Resources Design and Development Across Disciplines at DePaul University.” Open educational resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research materials that have been created under an open license that makes them free to use, reuse, and access.
The grant will fund three projects to develop OER and/or ancillary materials for select undergraduate courses across three of the university’s schools and colleges. The projects will be led by Kelly Hallisy, Scholarly Communications Librarian — in collaboration with faculty authors:
- Coya Paz Brownrigg, Reza Mirsajadi, and Emilio Williams from The Theatre School will be authoring an original textbook, Theatrical Histories: A Decentered Approach, to be used in THE 204, THE 205, and THE 206: History of Dramatic Literature
- Kristen Pengelly from the College of Communication will be creating a remixed textbook and ancillaries, Business and Professional Communications to be used in CMNS 201: Business and Professional Communication
- Aaron Lefkovitz from the Department of History will be authoring an original textbook, Past, Present, and Future of the Back of the Yards Neighborhood: An Open Educational Textbook, to be used in HST 244: Neighborhood Engagement and Chicago Histories: Back of the Yards
These projects will increase student success by eliminating textbook costs for students in the courses. The project team will also structure the learning content through diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility strategies that acknowledge and celebrate the diverse identities of DePaul students.
The authors will receive project support from DePaul’s Center for Teaching and Learning staff: Alex Joppie, Amy Moretti, Jes Klass, Lisa Gibbons; University Center for Writing-based Learning (UCWbL) staff: Katie Brown and graduate students; and Library staff: Grace Spiewak.
The goal is for faculty to use the OER and ancillary materials from 2026 – 2029 saving approximately 2,715 students a total of $234,480 ($78,160 for 905 students annually).
For more information about open educational resources at DePaul, please visit https://libguides.depaul.edu/openeducation.