Faculty Resources
Open Nebraska supports faculty who want flexibility in how they design and teach their courses while helping students reduce the cost of required materials. Whether you are adopting open educational resources (OER), using library materials, or redesigning your course week by week, ONE provides practical support and visible recognition for that work.
Designating Open Nebraska Course Sections
Faculty and departmental schedulers can designate Open Nebraska course attributes directly in the course scheduling system. These attributes allow students and advisors to identify no-cost and low-cost sections during registration.
View a step-by-step guide on how to add Open Nebraska course attributes using the CourseLeaf Section Scheduler.
Faculty Support
Open Nebraska is not just a labeling system—it's a support structure.
Affordable Content Grants
Faculty may apply for Affordable Content Grants to support the adoption, adaptation, or creation of no-cost and low-cost course materials. Grants recognize the time and labor involved in course redesign and are especially focused on high-impact and high-enrollment courses.
Online Course Development Grants
Online Course Grants support faculty in reviewing, updating, and creating quality online courses that aim to assist with UNO strategic goals. Explore Online Course Development Grants.
MavEd Workshops
General Education and the Center for Faculty Excellence offers an incentivized, 8-week professional development workshop on designing, or redesigning, courses that align with UNO’s revised General Education requirements. Explore MavEd Workshops.
UNO Contacts
Joe Doe, Director of Development, Innovative and Learning Centric Initiatives
Email: dhawkins@unomaha.edu
Craig Finlay,OER and STEM Librarian, Dr. C.C. and Mabel L. Criss Library
Email: sfinlay@unomaha.edu
Consultations
Faculty are welcome to schedule one-on-one consultations to explore affordable content options, review existing materials, or plan future course conversions. Contact Craig Finlay for more information.
What Can Open Nebraska Do for Me?
Support for Tenure, Promotion, and Reappointment
Work with open and affordable course materials is legitimate, documentable faculty labor. At UNO, faculty have successfully incorporated OER and affordable content work into tenure and promotion narratives as evidence of curriculum development, innovation, assessment, and student-centered teaching.
Guidance based on interviews with tenure mentors and unit leaders shows that OER work can be framed as:
• Teaching excellence through course redesign and curriculum development
• Scholarly activity when paired with assessment and dissemination
• Service when it contributes to departmental, institutional, or disciplinary initiatives
Read the case study on Using OER Work in Narratives: Conversations with Tenure Experts.
Finlay S.C. & Soto Luna, I. (2023). “Using OER Work in Narratives: Conversations with Tenure Experts,” in Andrew McKenney (ed.) Valuing OER in the Tenure, Promotion, and Reappointment Process, DOERS3, 2023.
Pedagogical Freedom
Many faculty choose affordable content not just to reduce costs, but to gain flexibility. Open materials allow instructors to design courses around learning goals rather than a single textbook — adjusting readings, sequencing, and emphasis week by week.
“OER has totally transformed how we teach. We have clear modules with a variety of content (readings, videos, graphics, discussions, assignments, etc.) to engage students in multiple ways.” – Greg Morin, Lecturer, Marketing & Entrepreneurship.
Watch this video to learn how one educator uses open educational resources in their teaching: