In the 2025-26 OER Collective Grant Round, seven grants were awarded across five categories, totalling $25,000.
Use the links below to read about the OER projects funded in each category:
- Category: Adopt+
- Supplementary Resources to Support the Adoption of the OER Textbook Becoming a Climate Conscious Lawyer: Climate Change and the Australian Legal System
- Category: Wildcard
- The Art of Re-Learning: A Guide to Academic Readiness
- Category: Leap
- Midwifery Solidarity and Feminism
- Category: Collaborate
- Mental Health Essentials: Transitioning from Student to Practitioner
- Category: Create
- Learning in and through STEAM in Early Childhood
- Eyeballs Made Easy
- Resources and Strategies for Gender Expansive Language Education
Category: Adopt+
Supplementary Resources to Support the Adoption of the OER Textbook Becoming a Climate Conscious Lawyer: Climate Change and the Australian Legal System
Dr Julia Dehm (La Trobe University)
Dr Nicole Graham (University of Sydney)
Kate Galloway (RMIT)
Zoe Nay (La Trobe University)
This project proposes to develop supplementary resources to support the adoption of the OER textbook, Becoming a Climate Conscious Lawyer: Climate Change and the Australian Legal System.
The existing OER provides an original analysis of how different areas of law are impacted by climate change and an overview of cutting-edge level developments in response to climate change. There has already been wide adoption of OER since its publication and has been included as a prescribed text at multiple law schools in Australia, including La Trobe University, University of Melbourne, University of Sydney, and Queensland University of Technology.
This project will develop supplementary resources to boost the adoption of the existing OER by:
- Developing supplementary learning activities, case studies, and assessment tasks that require students apply, analyse and evaluate climate-related knowledge contained in the OER textbook
- Developing lesson plans and lecture slides that legal educators can use to teach students about the climate-related knowledge contained in the OER textbook
- Collaborating with online/digital learning specialists to create H5P and other imbedded interactive activities to supplement the OER textbook
Category: Wildcard
The Art of Re-Learning: A Guide to Academic Readiness
Liam Frost-Camilleri (Federation University Australia)
The Art of Re-Learning was written to equip enabling and first year university students with the essential tools to navigate the challenges of university-level study. Written in clear and approachable language, this textbook adopts an inclusive approach that recognises and respects the diverse backgrounds and experiences of non-traditional learners. Recognising many students accessing enabling programs face additional barriers to their learning, this textbook is already screen-reader compatible, mobile-friendly and available offline, with accessible language, glossaries and a welcoming tone throughout to help address some of these barriers.
This project will expand the accessibility of the textbook by:
- Recording an audio version read by the author and easily accessible through a link in the online textbook
- Working with a learning designer to implement best practice for neurodiverse students regarding textbook layout
- Creating visual aids to break up the text
- Incorporating case studies and increase cultural relevancy
- Holding a workshop with current and former students to explore limitations of current format and to collect student experiences, case studies and possible quotes to be added to the text.
Category: Leap
Midwifery Solidarity and Feminism
Dr Kate Buchanan (Edith Cowan University)
Prof Jyai Allen (Edith Cowan University)
Dr Di Bloxsome (Edith Cowan University)
Dr Mitra Javanmard (Edith Cowan University)
Emma Ritchie (Edith Cowan University)
Dr Sarah Hay (Edith Cowan University)
Krystyl Toneycliffe (Edith Cowan University)
Prof Sara Morris (Edith Cowan University)
Prof Sara Bayes (Edith Cowan University)
This OER is a completely new textbook that will bring together midwifery philosophical underpinnings and theory with feminist principles. This comprehensive text will detail the philosophical and ethical foundations of midwifery, emphasising the critical role of feminism in shaping these core values.
Through the lens of feminism, it will examine midwifery models of care as essential models that advance the midwifery profession and the empowerment of women and other birth people through the perinatal experience. The text will also consider new parenting and parent education, positioning midwifery as a cornerstone of primary health care and advocating for feminist approaches to support new families.
The experiences of diverse midwives and those they care for will be scrutinised, revealing the intersection of gender, economics, and society. The book will address the gendered nature of the midwifery workforce, highlighting the challenges faced by midwives related to attrition and burnout, and the role of female oppression and power hierarchies that perpetuates limits on the role and scope of the midwife in a predominantly gendered profession, caring for predominantly females.
The book will conclude with an exploration of women’s and birth people’s choices in childbirth, framing them as fundamental feminist issues. This OER will be a vital resource for midwives, educators, and students, and potentially other health care professionals, offering a rich, feminist-informed perspective on midwifery and the maternity system and the advancement of women and birth people’s empowerment.
Category: Collaborate
Mental Health Essentials: Transitioning from Student to Practitioner
Prof Phil Maude (La Trobe University)
Sophia McNamara (La Trobe University)
Angela Milligan (La Trobe University)
Gaby Bruning (La Trobe University)
Grahame Mitchell (Eastern Metropolitan Dual Diagnosis Consumer and Carer Advisory Council)
Jade Frank (Eastern Metropolitan Dual Diagnosis Consumer and Carer Advisory Council)
Adam Searby (Monash University)
A/Prof Cathy Daniel (University of Melbourne)
Prof Debra Jackson (University of Sydney)
Lisa Ritchie (La Trobe University)
Michael Olasoji (Federation University Australia)
Russell James (University of Tasmania)
This project will create a community of practice across six institutions to co-design an open access, living text eBook with an Australian and New Zealand focus. It will be set for mental health (MH) theory subjects and to prepare students for MH clinical placements.
The project intends to replace key legacy texts used across Australian and New Zealand Nursing and Allied Health courses and address critical gaps, including:
- Advanced mental health
- Addictions
- Clinical readiness
- Cultural safety
- Lived experience
- Student self-care
The resource will be co-developed with academic experts, lived and living experience (LLE) contributors, First Nations cultural advisors, graduates and students. Offering an accessible, interactive alternative to costly commercial texts, this resource will align with sector reforms and support government initiatives to graduate more healthcare professionals annually, promoting equity and sector-wide uptake.
Category: Create
Learning in and through STEAM in Early Childhood
Dr Jennifer Stevens-Ballenger (La Trobe University)
Chantelle Lynch (La Trobe University)
Dr Scott Alterator (La Trobe University)
This project will develop a suite of multimedia case studies showcasing effective, integrated STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) teaching and learning in Australian early childhood settings. These resources will support Bachelor-level students by providing them with practical, culturally responsive, and play-based examples of practice.
The resource will include 13 video case studies and associated interactive tasks aligned with the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) for Australia. This project will focus on the science, technology and arts disciplines within STEAM and embed Indigenous perspectives. The remaining disciplines of engineering and mathematics will be added post-project.
Eyeballs Made Easy
A/Prof Hessom Razavi (University of Western Australia)
Dr Deepaysh Dutt (East Metropolitan Health Service)
Dr Martin Hein (East Metropolitan Health Service)
This OER will be a novel handbook for ophthalmology that combines clinical medicine, short-form poetry, and complementary online content. The text will be practical and up to date, based on a university medical school curriculum, with embedded videos on YouTube, a website due for launch in 2025, and associated podcasts by the authors. It will provide summaries for the 30 most common and serious eye conditions presenting to generalists (non-ophthalmologists), including General Practitioners (GPs), Optometrists and Emergency Departments. At University of Western Australia, the Eyeballs Made Easy program has received multiple Teaching Excellence Awards.
Benefits to readers include:
- Relevance and accessibility of the text, which will be succinct yet comprehensive
- High quality clinical images
- Complementary online content including videos and animations
- Each eye condition will be accompanied by a short medical poem to engage readers and highlight key aspects of disease
The primary target audience is medical students, with a secondary audience that includes optometry students, junior doctors, GPs, Emergency Physicians and nurses. The book was designed from conception to be relevant to its audience, through a workshop process supported by the University of Western Australia which included participating students. The contents have been deliberately distilled and tailored to real world generalist practice, with practical ‘tips and tricks’ for clinical examinations and management.
Resources and Strategies for Gender Expansive Language Education
Dr Adriana Díaz (University of Queensland)
Dr Riccardo Amorati (University of Melbourne)
Dr Elena Pirovano (University of Melbourne)
This OER will be a rigorously curated, practice-informed collection designed to support language educators in embedding gender-expansive and gender-just linguistic practices in the classroom.
It responds to a pressing and global need: as students across Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, and beyond increasingly express gender expansive identities – often within education systems not designed to affirm them – there is a growing imperative for more inclusive, justice-oriented teaching practices. For language educators, particularly those teaching grammatically gendered languages such as Spanish, Italian, and French, this means confronting the constraints of binary linguistic norms and seeking critical, context-responsive strategies to support all learners.
The OER will be built on critical pedagogy, intersectional feminism, and decolonial theory, but written in accessible language and filled with practical tools. It will be designed for both pre-service and practising language educators across all levels – primary, secondary, and tertiary – including teacher education programs. It will align with the Australian Curriculum: Languages, while remaining adaptable to different teaching contexts, including university and community education.