LIT Receives $285K Open Educational Resource Grant, Supporting Workforce Course Materials

8/21/2026

Lamar Institute of Technology (LIT) was named one of nine recipients of grants funded through the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Open Educational Resource (OER) Grant Program, which helps institutions to create and adopt openly licensed textbooks and other course materials that students can access through the OERTX digital library.

The $285,000 award will support LIT’s Workforce and Continuing Education Department in developing and implementing course materials for the ESL Level 1 Certificate, Drone Pilot Basics and Certification and Artificial Intelligence Foundations Certificate programs.

These materials will be provided to all students enrolled in the courses at no cost, eliminating the need to purchase a textbook.

“This grant gives us an opportunity to remove a barrier for students while providing them with high-quality, relevant learning materials,” said Ana Pereda, Executive Director of Workforce and Continuing Education. “By developing these resources for our workforce programs, we can make training more accessible to our students while also creating materials that can benefit other institutions across Texas.”

An OER is a teaching, learning, or research resource that is in the public domain or has been released under an intellectual property license that permits the free use, adaptation, and redistribution of the resource by any person.

Once developed, the materials will be published through OERTX, the state’s digital library for open educational resources. Making the resources publicly available allows other colleges and institutions to adopt, adapt and use the materials in their own courses, further extending the impact of the grant and helping reduce educational costs for students.

“The three programs supported by the grant provide students with industry-relevant skills in areas of growing workforce demand,” said Pereda. “We are grateful for this investment and continued support of LIT.”

Learn more about LIT’s Workforce and Continuing Education Program at https://lit.edu/workforce-continuing-education.