CAAL-CBPA Strategic Plan: Goal 6.3 Administer an OER Development Grants Program for educators in the region.

The Council of Atlantic Academic Libraries (CAAL) is delighted to announce the recipients of this year’s AtlanticOER Development Grants. These grants are intended to support educators in the Atlantic Region in the adaptation, adoption, creation, and curation of open educational resources (OER), and to increase access to course materials for students. With funding from the Council of Atlantic Ministers for Education and Training (CAMET), the AtlanticOER Development Grant Program expanded this year. A new tiered system of funding was introduced to better support textbook creation (up to $7,000), adaptation (up to $3,500), and ancillary material creation projects (up to $1,000). 

The grants aim to support educators from provincially funded post-secondary institutions in achieving the following objectives:

• Support the creation or adaptation of open textbooks and ancillary materials, such as PowerPoint slides, quiz banks, images, and other digital study or interactive aids;
• Create a variety of OERs developed for use by educators and students in credit-bearing courses;
• Establish supportive events for the development of content for OERs, such as sprints (a collaborative in-person or virtual event to create or adapt an open textbook or ancillary resources); or
• Distribute funds to maximize direct benefit to a wide range of student learners and inquiry across a diversity of disciplines.

 The 2024 Development Grant recipients are: 

Dr. Cynthia Alexander, Department of Politics, Acadia University 

Tier: Creation Grant 

Project: The goal of this project is to create an interdisciplinary textbook that centers a decolonizing approach to public policy, amplifying Indigenous experts’ policy approaches and priorities. The project is reflective of over a decade of collaborative and community based research, including community service learning initiatives undertaken in partnership with Mi’kmaq and Inuit of Nunavut. The resulting textbook will be used to support both students at Acadia and students at Nova Scotia Community College. 

Team: Dr. Beverly McKee, School of Health and Human Services, Nova Scotia Community College 

Courses: Pols 2003 Introduction to Public Policy (Acadia); POLS 4803/5803 Canadian Public Policy (Acadia); PRNS 2018 Health Promotion and Community Nursing (NSCC); PRNS Introduction to Nursing (NSCC) 

Dr. Yigit Aydede, Sobey School of Business and Economics, Saint Mary’s University 

Tier: Creation Grant 

Project: This project aims to create a new, interactive open textbook that will be used to teach upper level undergraduate students in business and social science the foundational data analytics skills in R and Python. The textbook will integrate practical programming skills that will allow students to apply machine learning techniques directly to real-world issues they encounter in their fields of study. 

Courses: MGSC 1207 Introduction to Data Analytics for Business;  MGSC 2207 Introductory Statistics; ECON 3303 Intermediate Economic Statistics; ECON 4498 Research Seminar in Economics 

Dr. Karen Brebner, Department of Psychology, Saint Francis Xavier University 

Tier: Adaptation Grant 

Project: The goal of this project is to adapt and expand upon the book, Open Neuroscience Initiative. The project aims to add a lab manual, supplement existing content, and create chapter assignments with both student and expert feedback in mind. 

Team: Dr. Erin Mazerolle Department of Psychology, StFX, Sherry Neville-MacLean, Department of Psychology, StFX 

Courses: PSYC 231 Brain and Behaviour I; PSYC 232 Brain and Behaviour II 

André Davey, School of Access, Education, and Language, Nova Scotia Community College 

Tier: Adaptation Grant 

Project: The goal of this project is to adapt an open Math textbook to make it suitable for teaching Health Mathematics. Current options for OER focused on Math do not meet the learning outcomes for students who take Health Mathematics. This textbook will provide better access for future Licensed Practical Nurses to interactive learning materials with Nova Scotia based case studies. 

Courses: Math 1048, Math 1049 Health Mathematics; Math 1025 Health Math Extension from Graduate Math IV 

Dr. Elizabeth Jewett, Director of Extended Learning, Mount Allison University 

Tier: Creation Grant 

Project: The goal of this project is to create an introductory Canadian Studies textbook that makes use of a variety of media types and knowledges to support different styles of learning. The textbook will provide to a range of audiences inside and outside the university a comprehensive interdisciplinary introduction to Canada and to critical Canadian Studies that seeks to restructure how narratives of Canada are discussed to emphasize the different ways of knowing, seeing, and experiencing this country.  

Team: Andrew Nurse, Acting Director of Canadian Studies at Mount Allison University, Elizabeth Miller Public Services and Special Collections Librarian at Mount Allison University  

Courses: CANA 1001 Contemporary Canada: An Introduction; CANA 1011 Representing Canada  

Dr. Laura Lambe, Department of Psychology, Saint Francis Xavier University 

Tier: Creation Grant 

Project: The goal of this project is to create a comprehensive textbook on Introductory Clinical Psychology for undergraduate students. Graduate students from Atlantic Canada will be invited to contribute to this book on their areas of expertise. The project team seeks to create a  resource that integrates EDI principles and Canadian content, and to garner feedback from students on their experience with the newly developed OER. 

Team: Dr. Angela Weaver, Department of Psychology, StFX 

Course: PSYC 379 Introduction to Clinical Psychology 

Hannah Rosborough, Instruction and Scholarly Communication Librarian, Sir James Dunn Library, Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University 

Tier: Creation Grant 

Project: The goal of this project is to create a Legal Citation Guide that will benefit students and legal professionals. This accessibly designed resource will include commonly cited primary and secondary sources, including explanations of specific components of legal citation and a glossary of legal sources. It will also provide guidance tailored to law students on formatting for legal documents and major papers. 

Course: LAWS 1014/1024 Legal Research and Writing 

Dr. Mo Snyder, Department of Earth and Environmental Science, Acadia University 

Tier: Adaptation Grant 

Project: The goal of this project is to revise, update, and add material to the open textbook “Geological Structures: A Practical Introduction”. This textbook combines theoretical, practical, and experiential learning to further enrich the geoscience learning experience for students 

Team: Dr. John Waldron, Acadia University 

Courses: GEOL 3603 Structural Geology and Tectonics; EAS 233 Geological Structures 

Matthew Walker, School of Performing Arts, Dalhousie University 

Tier: Creation Grant  

Project: The goal of this project is to create a textbook entitled Devised Theatre Tools for Actor Training, which seeks to articulate how devised methods and collaborative models can serve the actor in training. The collaborative nature of Devised training seeks to give actors greater autonomy and thereby can empower them as artists. The book will also aim to provide each artist with the agency to determine the parts of their own complex identity they wish to represent in their work. 

Team: Sara Graham, Accessibility Consultant 

Courses: THEA 1801, THEA 1802, THEA 2801, THEA 2802, THEA 3801, THEA 3802, THEA 4801, THEA 4802 

We are pleased to offer support to educators in the region in developing OERs.  

Alexandra Marcaccio (she/ her/ elle)

AtlanticOER Lead

Council of Atlantic Academic Libraries / Conseil des bibliothèques postsecondaires de l’Atlantique (CAAL-CBPA)120 Western Parkway, Suite 202, Bedford, NS  B4B 0V2 | W: caul-cbua.ca | T: 902-830-6467 | E: oer@caul-cbua.ca

CAAL-CBPA represents member libraries across the region, all of whom sit on the unceded and traditional territories of First Peoples.  In Newfoundland and Labrador, our libraries sit on the homelands of the Inuit of Nunatsiavut and NunatuKavut, the Innu of Nitassinan, the Beothuk and the Mi’kmaq peoples.  In Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, we find our friends and colleagues situated on the territory of the Mi’kmaq.  In New Brunswick, libraries are found on the land of the Wəlastəkwiyik, Mi’kmaq, and Passamaquoddy Peoples.  We at CAAL-CBPA wish to express our sincerest gratitude to the First Peoples who share their ancestral homelands with us all.

CAAL-CBPA représente les bibliothèques membres de la région, qui sont toutes situées sur les territoires non cédés et traditionnels des Premiers Peuples. À Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador, nos bibliothèques sont situées sur les terres des Inuits du Nunatsiavut et du NunatuKavut, des Innus de Nitassinan, des Béothuks et des Mi’kmaq. À l’Île-du-Prince-Édouard et en Nouvelle-Écosse, nous retrouvons nos amis et collègues situés sur le territoire des Mi’kmaq. Au Nouveau-Brunswick, on trouve des bibliothèques sur les terres des peuples Wəlastəkwiyik, Mi’kmaq, et Passamaquoddy. Nous souhaitons exprimer notre plus sincère gratitude aux peuples autochtones qui partagent avec nous leurs terres ancestrales.