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Open Educational Resources
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About OERs
Open Educational Resources (OERs) are openly and freely available resources that can be adopted and (in many cases) adapted under Creative Commons (CC) licences.
OERs remove the often prohibitive costs of course materials, ensuring equity of access to learning content. Such resources also provide pedagogical benefits for educators, including the capacity to innovate and tailor content for alignment with the course and unit learning outcomes.
The University encourages the adoption of Open Educational Resources, as stated in Clause 71 of the Assessment, Teaching and Learning Procedures.
The Library has an informative Open Resources Library guide which provides an overview of open resources as a whole.
View the guideThe Library has curated collections of subject-specific Open Textbooks. All the resources in these collections are in the public domain, or have a CC licence for re-use, revision, remixing, redistribution or retention.
Browse the collectionFaculty and College Librarians can provide advice on how to source, recommend or replace prescribed texts with OERs.
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OER grant program
In 2025 SCU Library is piloting an OER Grant program to assist SCU staff to replace commercial, prescribed textbook/s with a free for student alternative. This grant program has been made possible with the support of Higher Education Participation and Partnership (HEPPP) funding.
Two levels of grants will be offered as part of the program:
- $1000 to adopt existing OER and/or Library subscribed resources to replace commercial textbook/s in a unit
- $2000 to adapt or develop OER or open textbook/s to replace commercial textbook/s in a unit.
The grants are open to any professional or academic staff at SCU who are involved in teaching or designing units at SCU. Full eligibility requirements and information about the program can be found in the OER Grant Program Guidelines.
OER Grant Program Guidelines
To be considered for a grant, staff members should submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) to library@scu.edu.au Prior to submitting an EOI carefully read:
EOIs will be assessed according to the selection criteria outlined in the OER Grant Program Guidelines (page 5). Project teams will be notified of the outcome of their application within 10 business days of submitting their EOI.
OER Grant Program EOI Form
EOIs open in April 2025.
EOIs close 5pm 26 September 2025, unless already allocated.
Contact library@scu.edu.au if you have any questions about the grant program.