CELEBRATING 150 YEARS

This generous gift will support the University of Waterloo Library’s OER Fellows Grant. Launched in 2022, this program offers competitive grants of $5,000 each to help instructors create or adapt an open educational resource (OER) for a Waterloo course. This investment by Staebler Insurance will allow the Library to offer these grants for the next five years.

Joanna Mendonca, President of Staebler Insurance, says “We are honoured to provide this gift to the Library in support of their OER Fellows Grant initiative. This contribution toward open educational resources is our humble contribution toward reducing material costs for students and supporting instructors in the creation of course-tailored resources.”

For decades now there has been a movement across Canada to support the development of open educational resources. These teaching, learning and research materials are free to use or re-purpose, helping to democratize knowledge and provide students with affordable access to quality materials. This gift represents an investment in not only the Library and open educational resources, but also in the University’s teaching and learning mission.

Instructors and faculty take the lead in creating OER but often don’t have the time or support needed to tackle such projects. The Staebler Insurance OER Fellows Grant provides the funding to give them both. In addition to funds, in-kind support is available through the Centre for Extended Learning's Agile Development Team (ADT) and through assistance from Library staff. ADT provides consultative and development services for digital learning design and multimedia, and the Library shares expertise in copyright, licensing and publishing.

Dr. Alana Cattapan, assistant professor, Department of Political Science, and 2022 OER Fellows Grant recipient, says “The OER grant has given me the opportunity to assess the accessibility of my OER-in-progress, as well as to incorporate [contributions] by leading experts, improving the depth of knowledge represented by the project and expanding its reach.”

Russell Philpott, Executive Vice President of Staebler Insurance says, “Lifelong learning is a key value at Staebler Insurance ... we're thrilled to support the University of Waterloo Library in their mission to make learning materials freely accessible and available.”