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Open Educational Resources (OER)

Open Educational Resources Grant Program

Deakin's OER grant program commenced in 2021. The focus of the OER  program is to support staff in developing their capacity to use OER principles and practices in units and courses. The grant program enabled OER to be investigated, adapted, created and incorporated into units, building capacity in staff as they use and create resources. Applications are sought for creative and innovative project ideas from Deakin staff interested in using OER in their teaching or creating OER for their discipline. Successful applicants are supported in the creation of the OER with a grant and by the library. 

Past recipients

Since the program commencement, a wide range of projects have been supported. These include OER adoption, adaptation and creation projects. For some ideas for OER inclusion in your unit, have a look at the published OER texts and full project lists by year below (Note that the resource creation projects not linked to a resource are still in development).

Communication Concepts

This OER unpacks communication challenges in the 21st century, exploring the practices, politics, pleasures, and problems that are activated when meaning is shared across real and virtual spaces.

Communication and Teamwork Skills to Support Neurodiversity

This OER is designed for staff and students to support neurodiverse individuals in developing two key professional practice skills: communication and teamwork skills.

EspaƱol down under: Spanish for Australia and New Zealand

This OER, designed for the Australian and New Zealand environment, focuses on a hands-on, student-centric approach to learning Spanish.

Workplace Role Play Scenarios

This OER provides a range of workplace scenarios that can be utilised for experiential learning covering difficult conversations, negotiation and mediation. 

Mathematical Reasoning and Investigation

This OER is a flexible and approachable resource designed to help learners develop the ability to use mathematics, focusing on reasoning and problem solving skills. 

Enabling and Optimising Recovery from COVID-19

This OER provides a handbook and guide for health professionals and other caregivers of people with Long COVID.

Business Finance

This OER, developed for an international cohort, is designed to explain business finance concepts in an easily understood manner without overwhelming students with too much content.

Fundamentals of Finance

This OER is designed to serve as an additional resource for the course "Fundamentals of Finance." It provides an introduction to the field of finance, encompassing a broad range of key topics.

Leading Assessment for Inclusion

This OER is intended for higher education practitioners across all disciplines, as an introduction to inclusion for assessment in higher education.

2025 Grant Recipients

The OER grant recipients for 2025 are:

  • Hoa Nguyen (Business and Law) - Update to Business Finance open textbook 
  • Tom Keel (Business and Law) - Business case for sustainability in property, a data SharePoint
  • Nateque Mahmood (Science, Engineering and Built Environment) -  Empowering Students: video resources for careers in residential construction
  • Argaw Gurmu (Science, Engineering and Built Environment) - Digital approaches to building measurement
  • Tui Raven and Iain Doherty (Library, NIKERI and Learning Innovation partnership) - Resource to teach the CAVAL Indigenous Knowledges Citation Guide 
  • Kelli Nicola-Richmond (Health) - Occupational therapy placements: a resource for placement supervisors
  • Rasika Samarasinghe (School of Medicine) - Developing resources for medical biotechnology 
  • Sophie McKenzie (Science, Engineering and Built Environment) - A guide for host supervision and assessment of P-WIL performance in IT
  • Ryan Mitchell (Science, Engineering and Built Environment) - DIY learning activities for threshold concepts in engineering mechanics

2024 Grant Recipients

The OER grant recipients for 2024 are:

  • Jacqui McGregor (Health)- Care of the unwell or premature neonate- Fundamentals for the new practitioner
  • Cailin Melberg (Health) - Develop a 3D visualisation of the human body from images in the visible human body project.
  • Joanna Tai (CRADLE) - Inclusive assessment in higher education,policy and practice - Leading Assessment for Inclusion
  • Siva Krishnan (Science, Engineering and Built Environment) - Learning resources for developing communication and teamwork skills of tertiary students with neurodiversity - Communication and Teamwork Skills to Support Neurodiversity
  • Nateque Mahmood (Science, Engineering and Built Environment) - Building Futures: A Collection of Construction Management Career Videos
  • Kazem Ghabraie (Science, Engineering and Built Environment) - Creating an open textbook on soil mechanics
  • Simon James (Science, Engineering and Built Environment) - Student feedback on open source material used in unit to improve content.
  • Patricia Perlen (Deakin Law School) - Accessing open-source legal research without digital barriers
  • Reza Kachouie (Deakin Business School) - Develop data set that can be used for case studies on varying topics in unit
  • Alexa Hayley (Health) - Foundations of Psychological Practice: Theory, Practice, and Critical Perspectives for Emerging Professionals in Australia

2023 Grant Recipients

The OER grant recipients for 2023 are:

  • Erin Hawley (Arts and Education) - Develop an open textbook on Communication concepts
  • Ramon Lopez Castellano and Fanny Lucia Rios Rodriguez (Arts and Education) -  Add interactive components to Español down under: Spanish for Australia and New Zealand
  • Hoa Nguyen (Business and Law) - Develop Australian case studies for finance
  • Paulina Fishman (Business and Law) - Develop OER for corporate insolvency law - Corporate Insolvency Law in Australia
  • Patricia Corbett (Science, Engineering and Built Environment) - Develop open textbook on sustainable marine futures
  • Ellen Moon, Matt Jennings and Rob McHenry (Science, Engineering and Built Environment) - Extend OER engineering career video collection
  • Natalie Gasz (Science, Engineering and Built Environment) - Investigate the availability of OER to replace textbooks
  • Allison Ringer (Business and Law) - Adopt an open textbook for Marketing
  • Annette Nguyen (Business and Law) - Develop an OER textbook for Finance - Fundamentals of Finance

2022 Grant Recipients

The successful grant applications for 2022 included OER book creation and ancillary resource creation. The successful applicants were:

2021 Grant Recipients

  • Andrew Cain (Science, Engineering and Built Environment) - Update existing OER textbook on programming
  • Tricia Wevill (Science, Engineering and Built Environment) - Remix OER to create resources on Ecology
  • Jillian Healy (Science, Engineering and Built Environment) - Incorporate OER text in unit site to replace textbook
  • Mark Luther / Hong Xian Li (Science, Engineering and Built Environment) - Develop interactive tour of building services
  • Emily Wade (Arts and Education) - Develop OER Student Stories Hub
  • Andrea Nolan (Arts and Education) - Open text on Play-based teaching approaches
  • Leesa Davis (Arts and Education) - Update unit content to include OER
  • Dr Sarah Steen (Business and Law) - Develop open text of Workplace Role Play Scenarios
  • Paul Fallon (Business and Law) - Develop business case studies
  • Cailin Mellberg (Health) - Develop the Grad Companion : A MRI resource for teaching anatomy
  • Ian Fuelscher (Health) - Develop modules to move to an open source software for statistical analysis in Psychology and an open textbook.

More information on the 2021 project can be found on the Open Educational Resources Grants 2021 website.