University of Houston Libraries

The Open Education Incentive (OPEN) Program includes a variety of funding opportunities to support instructors’ engagement with open educational resources (OER) and open educational practices.  

The OPEN Program supports the university’s strategic goal of providing a top tier, inclusive educational experience to all UH students. Using open educational resources and practices ensures that educational programs are more financially accessible for all students, supports innovative and creative teaching methods, and enhances experiential learning opportunities to enrich student learning. Since the launch of open education initiatives in 2018, UH Libraries has helped remove approximately $2.56 million in textbook costs for nearly 20,000 students. 

If you have questions about the program, please contact oer@uh.edu. 

Applications are not currently being accepted for the Open Education Incentive Program. 

OPEN Program Information Session

The OPEN Program Information Session was held on on Tuesday, February 11 at 12:00pm. Please see below for access to the recordings and slides for the presentation:

Instructors can receive funds to replace required commercial textbooks with OER and/or no-cost alternative resources, which may include:  

• Adoption of existing OER, or a combination of OER, library-licensed, and/or freely available resources, or  
• Adaptation or modification of existing OER, or  
• Creation of OER learning objects to supplement existing OER, e.g., assignments, quizzes, lecture slides, lesson plans, videos, etc.  

Awards range from $1,000 to $5,000.

Applications due: Friday, March 7, 2025

Note: This program is not intended to support authorship and publication of new open textbooks. Those interested in publishing open textbooks can indicate their interest to oer@uh.edu to be notified of future opportunities.  

Instructors can receive funds for either creating openly licensed learning objects or replacing a traditional assignment with a renewable assignment. Instructors may: 

• Create and share an OER learning object, e.g., assignments, quizzes, lecture slides, lesson plans, videos, etc.; or   
• Replace traditional assignment(s) with renewable assignment(s)*; or 
• Some combination of the above   

Awards range from $500 to $2,000. 

Applications due: Friday, March 7, 2025

* To learn about renewable assignments, please visit the Teaching with Open Pedagogy guide.  

Instructors can receive funds for participating in a guided professional development program in which they explore and better understand OER through a series of self-paced online learning modules. Participants will attend a required introductory meeting and may attend an optional virtual discussion. 

Registration is capped at 30 participants and is available on a first come first serve basis. 

Award: $250  

Applications Due: February 21, 2025