PROJECT OVERVIEW

Type of OER Project

OPEN PRESS PROJECT DEVELOPMENT WORK: DELIVERABLES, BUDGET AND DUE DATES

You may adjust your budget and timeline after your project is approved or after consulting with OP but providing as much detail as possible helps the Project Proposal Adjudication subcommittee.

The chart below provides a suggested timeline. As this is the final year of the initiative, all content development for 2025-2026 projects should be completed by January/February 2026, with full completion by March 2026.

You may consider also including beta-testing & student feedback implementation, publishing, promotion (e.g., conferences, repository submissions), and post-publication impact assessment in your timeline.

The following is a list of potential project funding allocations. Include any that apply, or add your own, if they are not listed below.

Total Allowable Budget: $7,500

1. Personnel Costs

• Project Developer (Hourly rate: $50-100/hr)

  Faculty hourly rate will be treated like a Work Assignment, and parties agree that, subject to the terms and conditions of the Work Assignment, payment for services will be made through the Thompson Rivers University (TRU) payroll department, with statutory deductions being applied.

• Research Assistants (RAs)

  (Note: Please include how many RAs you’d like to hire and if you have someone in mind already).

• Undergraduate RAs (suggested rate: $20-$25/hour + 14% in lieu of benefits)
• Graduate RAs (suggested rate: $25-$30 + 14% in lieu of benefits)

• Professional Consultants or contributors (external to TRU)

2. Honoraria

3. Equipment & Materials

• Software, hardware, or specialized tools

4. Travel Expenses

• Conferences, site visits, knowledge-sharing meetings

5. Miscellaneous Costs

EVALUATION MATRIX

Please note that the matrix is designed to facilitate discussion and evaluation in line with the priorities of the TRU Open Press. All decisions about which projects the subcommittee presents to the Advisory Board should be agreed upon by consensus. The questions posed are non-exhaustive and can be expanded upon by the subcommittee, and scores should be considered a conversation starter only, not an objective truth.

Please write a short description of how your project will fulfill each of the priority criteria below.

Priority 1: Student Benefit
How do students benefit from this project?

Consider:

• For OER: How many students and classrooms will be impacted?
• For OER: What is the cost of comparator textbooks?
• For scholarship: What effect will this project have on classroom teaching or other pedagogical impacts?
• Are there roles for students on the project (specify RA, TA, Practicum, Co-Op)?

Priority 2: Significance and Contribution
What contribution does this project make, either to the discipline, to open activism, the work of the Press, or TRU?

Consider:

• What does the project offer to scholarship or pedagogy?
• How do communities, partners, or people who are not students benefit from this project?
• How will this project further the reputation of TRU?
• How might this project speak to institutional strategic planning objectives or goals?

Priority 3: Equity, Access, Indigenization, and Localization
The Open Press is committed to inclusive excellence.

Consider:

• Does this project benefit equity-seeking groups?
• Does this project include diverse voices in positions of contribution and decision-making?
• Has this proposal considered accessibility?
• Does this project show a commitment to Indigenization?
• Can this project be localized for TRU students or reflect local community interests and needs?

Priority 4: Innovation
How does this project forward innovation, either in the discipline or at the Press itself?

Consider:

• What are the technological needs of the project?
• What is the scope of practice?
• Are there opportunities for students to develop new skills on this project?
• How will this knowledge be disseminated?

ASSIGNMENT OF COPYRIGHT AND WAIVER OF MORAL RIGHTS

The copyright in the Material developed as part of this Work Assignment belongs exclusively to the Thompson Rivers University (TRU). Upon delivery of the Material, the Contractor must execute the Assignment of Copyright and Waiver of Moral Rights document. The Assignment of Copyright and Waiver of Moral Rights waives, in the TRU’s favour, any and all moral rights which the Contractor or their employees may have in the Material and confirms the vesting of copyright in the TRU.

TRU requires that all Materials, regardless of length, created by a third party (i.e., someone other than an employee of TRU) be cleared for usage according to the Copyright Act of Canada. Therefore, according to TRU policy and in order to facilitate TRU obtaining copyright permission, we require the Contractor to:

• Identify each and every third-party item used in the Material created under this Contract.
• Supply complete bibliographic information about each item on the Course/Copyright Clearance Form.
• Identify the specific location within the course where the third-party item is used.
• Supply a list of all third-party items.

TRU’s Open Press mandate is to create and publish Open Educational Resources. I hereby acknowledge that the content I create using Open Press funding will have an open license, unless cultural or privacy reasons prevent this type licensing. TRU Open Press works with Creative Commons licenses: https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/cclicenses/

Please review the Creative Commons licenses carefully (link provided) to understand how others may use your work according to your preferences.

(The default license for TRU Open Press is CC BY-NC-SA)

The TRU Open Press Adjudication Subcommittee will use the Project Evaluation Matrix guidelines to evaluate and assess all project proposals received before and after March 7, 2025. This assessment will include examining the Open Press project timelines, resources, and capacity. All projects will start mid- to late-April. You will be contacted by the Publishing Manager as soon as a decision has been made about your project.

Please contact Dani Collins (OpenPress@tru.ca) if you have any follow-up questions about your proposal.