The UBC Vancouver Open Educational Resources (OER) Fund, established through the UBC Academic Excellence Fund, aims to support affordable and inclusive access to learning materials through the adoption, adaptation, development, and integration of open educational resources in UBCV credit courses. In 2019, UBCV initially committed $1 million over four years to the UBCV OER Fund. As of spring 2022, the Fund has provided $650,076 in OER grant funding for 61 projects across 11 different faculties. To determine whether the goals of the OER are being met, an evaluation of the OER Fund Program was conducted. The goal of the evaluation was to:
- To provide transparency and share a collective snapshot of activity and resources supported by the OER Fund,
- To systematically collect evidence of OER impacts on students and on the teaching practices of faculty,
- To be able to identify specific approaches or contextual factors that lead to successful and effective OER Fund projects,
- To use evidence to inform decision making at the leadership level, strategic priority setting and adjudication processes.
