The goal of the SCALE Affordable Learning grant program is to expand the availability of course materials that are free of cost to students by providing funds to member institutions to support approaches they deem most effective for their individual campus. SCALE Affordable Learning Grants are designed to support PASCAL member institutions in the following efforts:
- Increasing institutional awareness of affordable learning resources on their campus
- Promoting faculty course use of library licensed materials in their teaching, including materials provided by PASCAL
- Creating or expanding programs that encourage the adoption, revision, or development of Open Educational Resources (OER)
PASCAL launched its grant program in 2020 as a pilot program to support institutions’ efforts to expand awareness and adoption of low or no-cost course materials and to develop a framework for grant administration that could be expanded as additional funding became available. The pilot was a success, with PASCAL awarding $19,000 to affordable learning projects at eight member institutions in the first round of grants.
2020 SCALE Grant awardees:
- Aiken Technical College: Using Open Educational Resources to Increase Student Success Across Disciplines at Aiken Technical College
- Anderson University: OER Development for Nursing Leadership & Management Course
- Coastal Carolina University: Leveraging Leganto: Promoting Ex Libris Reading Lists to CCU Faculty
- College of Charleston: Access, Affordability, and Academic Success at CofC: OER Review Incentive Program
- Limestone University: OER (Open Education Resources) Information Campaign
- Midlands Technical College: MTC Open Textbook Review Workshop
- University of South Carolina: SCALE-ing up Mathematics Open Educational Resources at the University of South Carolina
- USC Upstate: Unit Competition for Course Revision using OER and Affordable Resources
In 2022, a second round of SCALE grants were awarded to seven member institutions:
- Greenville Technical College: GTC OER Award
- Midlands Technical College: Open Educational Resources Faculty Learning Community
- Newberry College: Open Resources, Open Books, Open Knowledge
- Spartanburg Community College: Shifting Faculty Culture and Increasing OER Utilization
- Tri-County Technical College: Leveraging Institutional Partnerships to Drive Awareness and Adoption of Affordable Learning
- University of South Carolina Beaufort: Promoting and Creating OER Textbooks
- University of South Carolina Upstate: Pilot OER Faculty Stipend Program
Per the grant guidelines, PASCAL and grant awardees make all materials produced through the projects, including open textbooks, ancillary materials, and supplemental materials, available under a suitable Creative Commons license. To view full reports and materials created through these innovative projects, please visit the 2020 Grant Awardees and 2022 Grant Awardees pages.
