Defining Maintenance Grants

The Maintenance Grant was created to address the need to ensure textbooks remain current and effective teaching resources. The nature of this work does overlap with the goals of an Adapt grant, so typically these grants are reserved for instructors that have already been teaching with the resource being updated. Also, the focus is typically on areas where content needs to be updated rather than new content added, which may be a better fit for Adapt. Grant staff are happy to help select which grant fits your needs.

Reasons to Maintain an Open Textbook

Using an open textbook provides the advantage of being able to adapt the textbook to suit your needs. If you’ve already taught with that open textbook, you now also have insight on what you would like to change, based on your experience using that textbook. Some of the reasons you might want to update a work include:

• Updating content due to new discoveries in the field of study.
• Updating content to match changing departmental learning outcomes.
• Fixing typos, accessibility, or citations.
• Improving areas that were not effective.
• Reorganizing content to better fit the teaching schedule.
• Adding new images, charts, or other supporting non-text content.
• Adding new contributions from open student assignments.

Should I Just Create a New Edition Instead?

Many OER are primarily digital, and this is especially true for works in Pressbooks. Changes to the webbook will be updated for users automatically and this lends itself well to making small changes such as fixing typos or adjusting the layout without requiring a new printing. Typically, we only recommend making a new edition of the book if there are significant changes to the content, such as the inclusion of many new chapters or the use of all new case studies or image sets. Most maintenance changes can be addressed by including a “Last Updated” date, either at the beginning of the book or an individual chapter, or by maintaining a log of changes in the front or back matter.

Ultimately, the decision of creating a new edition of the book will be made by the author. We do recommend working with library staff when considering this so we can collaborate on promoting the new edition and archive the old edition.

Preparing Your Application

Different grant applications will require different information. Typical Maintenance projects may involve significantly modifying or updating an OER resource you have taught with in the past to ensure it remains current or to improve the resource based on experience and feedback. In general, you will need the following prepared:

• Name, contact info, and department for all participants.
• Course name and abbreviation for the modified course(s), along with the average annual enrollment and sections taught or impacted.
• Project summary that includes:
  • Motivators behind the project.
  • Detailed budget breakdown and funding rationale.
  • Outline of an anticipated timeline, including an expected implementation semester and any milestones throughout the project.
  • How the new resources will improve your course and support course learning objectives.
• A letter of support for your project, signed by your Dean or Department Head.