WHAT IS M.O.S.T.?

Vision

Led by the University System of Maryland’s William E. Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation in partnership with MarylandOnline (MOL), the Maryland Association of Community Colleges (MACC), and the Maryland Independent College and University Association (MICUA), M.O.S.T. is increasing access, affordability, and achievement for Maryland higher education students through open educational resources.

Mission

M.O.S.T. supports long-term, statewide scaling and sustainability of fully accessible, openly licensed course materials by providing the infrastructure Maryland’s public higher education institutions need to collaborate and co-create OER. M.O.S.T. is dedicated to empowering and rewarding faculty who capitalize on the opportunities afforded by openly licensed materials to optimize student learning through continuous quality improvement.

History

Started in 2013 as a collaboration between the University System of Maryland’s Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation and the system-wide student council, the M.O.S.T. initiative was charged in 2017 by the state legislature with supporting and scaling the adoption of “openly licensed, fully accessible” instructional materials across Maryland 2-year and 4-year public higher education institutions.

Learn more about the HISTORY OF THE M.O.S.T. initiative.

Path Forward

With this momentum built, we are seeking additional funding to support several initiatives designed to scale OER adoption and amplify the impact of the M.O.S.T. initiative. To that end, M.O.S.T. recently received a $1M grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to expand access, affordability, and achievement for Maryland postsecondary students.

We are also eager to disseminate our “lessons learned” about scaling OER and investigate a range of OER sustainability models in use in other states. Once OER adoption reaches a critical mass, such models promise to allow M.O.S.T. to generate the funds needed to sustain long-term OER adoption to help address college affordability and benefit Maryland students for generations to come.