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Open Educational Resources (OER)

A curation of materials relating to Open Educational Resources and their use

OER grants and award at JCU

2025 Textbook Affordability Project (TAP) Grants

 

Winners Announced

James Cook University Library is proud to announce the recipients of the 2025 Textbook Affordability Project (TAP) grants—a key initiative supporting the transition to free, high-quality learning resources for students. These grants empower academic staff to develop open educational resources (OERs) that replace costly commercial textbooks, helping to reduce financial barriers and improve access to learning.

This year’s TAP-funded projects span a wide range of disciplines and could potentially save students over $800,000 in textbook costs. The new resources will be available to students by the end of 2026, providing ongoing benefits for future cohorts. Each winning application will receive $3000 towards the development of a JCU Open eBook. The winners are as follows:

 

Dr Lauren Waszek, Dr Gregory Boyle, Dr Sara Brice, Prof. Scott Heron, A/Prof. Daniel Kosov, Dr James Whinney

College of Science and Engineering
Project: Development of a JCU Open eBook (title TBA) to replace a physics textbook and paid question bank for four subjects.
Estimated savings: $149 per student for 241 students — $35,909 total


A/Prof. Monika Zimanyi, A/Prof. Alex Trollope, Dr Amanda Meyer, Prof. Kate Domett

College of Medicine and Dentistry & College of Science and Engineering
Project: Slide into Histology — replacing three textbooks across 14 subjects.
Estimated savings: $284 per student for 1,729 students — $491,036 total


Dr Amanda Krause, Dr Daniel Miller, Dr Clint Knight, Dr Klaire Somoray, Dr Janine Lurie

College of Healthcare Sciences
Project: JCU Psychology Research — replacing a textbook and transitioning to open-source statistical software.
Estimated savings: $100 per student for 1,866 students — $186,600 total


Diana Castorina

College of Business, Law and Governance
Project: Principles of Economics — replacing a textbook for a first-year economics subject.
Estimated savings: $75 per student for 842 students — $63,150 total


Swapna Chaudhary

College of Medicine and Dentistry
Project: Introduction to Research Methods in Pharmacy Practice — replacing a textbook across three pharmacy subjects.
Estimated savings: $119 per student for 241 students — $28,679 total


These projects reflect JCU’s commitment to student success, innovation in teaching, and the growing impact of Open Educational Practices.

Read about the 2024 TAP Grant winners on our TAP Grant Webpage.

External OER Grants and Awards

Logo for Open Educational Resources Collective Check CAUL's Open Educational Resources Collective webpage for information on the latest grants available, as well as previous grant winners.
OE Global annually recognises excellence in Open Education through their OE Awards. More information may be found on the OE Awards webpage.

 

We acknowledge the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first inhabitants of the nation and acknowledge Traditional Owners of the lands where our staff and students, live, learn and work.Acknowledgement of Country

Creative Commons Licence
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International License, unless otherwise noted. Content from this Guide should be attributed to James Cook University Library. This does not apply to images, third party material (seek permission from the original owner) or any logos or insignia belonging to JCU or other bodies, which remain All Rights Reserved.

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