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Open Educational Resources in Colorado

Colorado is leading the way in Open Educational Resources (OER) adoption, which has been shown to foster innovation, reduce costs and boost student success.

Open Educational Resources (OER) are freely available online teaching and learning materials accessible to students, instructors and self-learners. Contained in digital media collections from around the world, including full courses, lectures, quizzes, classroom activities, pedagogical materials and many other assets. 

OER Grant Program

CDHE and the Colorado OER Council invite proposals for the 2023/24 cycle 6 OER grant. The Colorado OER Grant Program will fund five types of grants with a total allocation of $1,000,000 for the 2023/24 Cohort 6 grant cycle. The OER grant review team aims to award at least $500,000 in grant funding to z-degree and collaborative proposals in this cycle. View the 2023/24 Colorado OER Request for Proposals for full information. Proposals are due on Monday, December 18, 2023. 

The Colorado OER Grant Program launched in 2018 with three years of funding from H.B. 18-1331, and then the program was expanded an additional five years through S.B. 21-215. The OER adopted, adapted, or created in the first four cycles of the grant program has saved Colorado students an estimated $31.5 million in textbook costs. 

Learn more about the impact of the Colorado OER Grant Program in the Colorado Rises: Transforming Education Practices through Open Educational Resources 2022 Report.

Cohort 5 Grantees
The Colorado Department of Higher Education awarded its fifth round of grant awards. Awards totaling $960,018 were approved by the Colorado Commission on Higher Education on March 3, 2023. View the latest list of OER Grantees here or below.
 
Funding  Grant Level
$10,000 Small Aims Community College
$53,830 Institutional
Aims Community College
$67,748 Institutional Arapahoe Community College
$67,572 Institutional Colorado Community College System
$67,316 Institutional Colorado Mesa University
$34,000 Institutional Colorado Northwestern Community College
$54,000 Institutional Colorado School of Mines
$67,748 Institutional Colorado State University
$38,727 Institutional Colorado State University Pueblo
$17,420 Institutional
Community College of Denver
$20,000 Institutional
Fort Lewis College
$20,000 Institutional Front Range Community College
$50,000 Collaborative GradCo
$8,054 Small Metro State University of Denver
$67,748 Institutional Metro State University of Denver
$25,900 Institutional
Northeastern Junior College
$24,500 Institutional Pikes Peak State College
$26,500 Institutional Pueblo Community College
$43,133 Institutional Red Rocks Community College
$3,500 Small University of Colorado Boulder
$12,000 Institutional University of Colorado Denver / ThinqStudio
$54,125 Institutional University of Colorado Denver / Mathematics
$67,500 Institutional University of Colorado System
$47,897 Institutional University of Northern Colorado
$10,800 Institutional Western Colorado University
Previous OER Grantees

2021-22 Grantee Cohort #4

The Colorado Department of Higher Education awarded its fourth round of grant awards. Awards totaling $968,803 were approved by the CCHE in March of 2022. See the latest list of OER Grantees here. The 2023 Report will be available October 2023.

2020-21 Grantee Cohort #3

The Colorado Department of Higher Education awarded its third round of grant awards. Awards totaling $875,000 were approved by the CCHE in March of 2021. See the latest list of OER Grantees here. Read more in the 2022 Report.

2019-20 Grantee Cohort #2

$1 million was awarded for 35 different Open Education grantees, from individual faculty initiatives to institutional and inter-institutional projects. Review the OER Grantee Award List for our second cohort of grantees, who were approved by the CCHE in February 2020. Read more in the 2021 Report.

2018-19 Cohort #1

The Colorado Department of Higher Education awarded nearly $550,000 to power 20 groundbreaking OER Grantees that reflect the diversity of OER innovation. Read about the first cohort of grantees in the 2019 Report and 2020 Report.

 

Annual Colorado OER Conference

The 2023 Colorado OER Conference was held on Friday, May 19 at History Colorado in Denver. The May 2024 state wide will be announced in Fall 2023.

 

2023-34 Colorado Open Education Resources Council 

In the 2017 session, the Colorado legislature passed and the Governor signed Senate Bill 17-258, which creates the Open Educational Resources Council. This statewide body is charged to develop a plan for resources to benefit college and K-12 students throughout Colorado.

OER Councilmembers
 
Name Institution
Jen Mayer, Chair University of Northern Colorado

jennifer.mayer@unco.edu
Katherine Brown, Vice Chair Colorado State University Pueblo

katherine.brown@csupueblo.edu
Sam Collier Student Representative, CU Boulder
sam.collier@colorado.edu
Mitch Cota Arapahoe Community College mitch.cota@arapahoe.edu
Rebecka Cranwell Northeastern Junior College rebecka.cranwell@njc.edu
Jennifer DeBoer Western Colorado University jdeboer@western.edu
Jonathan Dyhr Metro State University Denver jdyhr@msudenver.edu
Sherry Jones Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design sherryjones.edtech@gmail.com
Michael Levine-Clark Adams State University michael.levine-clark@du.edu
Mark Manzanares Adams State University
markmanzanares@adams.edu
Leslie Reynolds University of Colorado Boulder
leslie.reynolds@colorado.edu
Nicholas Swails Colorado Northwestern Community College Nicholas.Swails@cncc.edu
Jacqueline Tomrdle Pikes Peak State College jacqueline.tomrdle@pikespeak.edu
     
State Designees    
Charissa Brammer Colorado State Library brammer_c@cde.state.co.us
Mallorie Klemk Colorado Department of Education klemm_m@cde.state.co.us
Chealsye Bowley Colorado Department of Higher Education chealsye.bowley@dhe.state.co.us
2022-23 OER Council Meeting Schedule

OER Council meetings are held on the second Friday of the month from 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM on Zoom. The November meeting has been rescheduled to the third Friday. Council meetings are open to the public and can be joined with the following link: https://highered-colorado-gov.zoom.us/j/84779664385?pwd=eXdVbTByVUk2NGJ3L3Mrd1JWVndxUT09

The agenda and notes from the August 2023 to June 2024 OER Council meetings are available here. The OER Council does not meet in July.