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VIVA: VIVA Open Course Grants

Virginia's Academic Library Consortium

This guide has variable layouts and houses the majority of the "sub" pages for VIVA's website.

VIVA Open Course Grants

The goal of the VIVA Open Course Grants (formerly Course Redesign Grants) is to make textbook and course materials free to students by empowering faculty with the resources and time they need to develop their curricula using open, library, or no cost resources. Course Grants have four areas of focus: Content Creation, Open Pedagogy, Open Ancillary, and Large Scale Adoption. Each grant type is served by a common application and deadline, and applicants for Open Course Grants are asked to select one grant category from the following for which they will apply: 

Content Creation Grants
$15,000-$50,000
VIVA Open Content Creation Grants support projects that adapt or create materials for credit-bearing courses at VIVA institutions. Intended to support a team, recipients create the content and then work with VIVA to see them published in a way that is accessible for adoption across the state. Typically Content Creation Grants allow one year for the creation of the materials and, following publication, a year to pilot in the classroom and report on the results. 

Open Pedagogy Grants
$5,000-$20,000
VIVA Open Pedagogy grants are awarded to faculty and instructors who use open materials in innovative ways and share the materials, including a syllabus and instructor handbook, necessary to replicate their efforts in other classrooms. Open Pedagogy Grants typically carry a one year period of performance. 

Open Ancillary Grants
$15,000-$30,000

VIVA Open Ancillary Grants acknowledge that the open textbook is only the first, foundational piece of a course that relies on open materials. Grant recipients will create test banks, assignments, slides and/or lectures to extend the utility of open materials and increase their adoption throughout Virginia. Grant projects are expected to be completed in one year. 

Large Scale Adoption Grants
$10,000-$20,000

Large Scale Adoption Grants support a group of faculty, including departments, certificate programs, and interdisciplinary programs, to move a course or group of courses to no-cost materials. Grant recipients will offer their syllabi and any created materials to VIVA Open. Large Scale Adoption Grants are expected to be completed in one year before being piloted in the classroom.

The application for the VIVA Open Course Grant, along with the Request for Proposals and the application instructions can be found at https://vivalib.org/va/open/grants/application. Applicants are strongly encouraged to download all three documents. 

Important Dates

The Spring 2025 round of Open Course Grants is now open. Applications are due on March 5, 2025. 

Questions about all VIVA Open grants can be sent to vivaopen@gmu.edu.

Support and Expectations

Each awarded grant will receive a project orientation at a kickoff meeting and ongoing support from VIVA staff, including Creative Commons license support.  In the case of Content Creation grants, copy-editing, design, and illustration work will be handled by VIVA. All created or modified material resulting from these grants must be in a format that can be hosted on VIVA's shared repository, VIVA Open. Copyright remains with the creator but VIVA requires permission to host the content in perpetuity. In addition, grant recipients will be expected to participate in the following required activities:

  • Institutional sign-off on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) provided by the VIVA Central Office, using the project proposal as a statement of work
  • Attendance by at least one team member at a required kickoff meeting 
  • Project Managers and PIs must meet virtually once at the outset of the project with the VIVA Open and Sustainable Learning Coordinator
  • Completion of a project status report for every semester of the implementation
  • Completion of all textbook and resource creation/adaptation and course redesign as described in the statement of work
  • Completion of a final project report, including a course syllabus with resource links and provision of data on impact on student success, including overall changes in Drop/Fail/Withdraw (DFW) rates and student performance
  • New works must be created under a Creative Commons License and be made accessible to the public through the VIVA shared repository platform
  • Provided course syllabi will be made available to the public through the VIVA Open Syllabus Bank. Identifying information may be redacted. 
  • All works must be subjected to an accessibility check and labeled appropriately as outlined in the MOU and at the grant kickoff meeting
  • A spreadsheet or record of the copyright status of all incorporated material, including text, images, video and music/sound files
  • Content created is owned by the creator, but VIVA requires permission to host the content in perpetuity
  • Participation as needed in VIVA-related communications, including post-project surveys
  • Successful applications may be made available to the public