Announcing the 2025 USG Faculty Open Educational Resources Leadership Award recipients

Dear students, faculty and staff,

The Undergraduate Student Government (USG), in collaboration with the Office of the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and the University Library, is excited to announce the three recipients of the 2025 USG Faculty Open Educational Resources Leadership Award. This award recognizes faculty members who demonstrate exemplary usage of open educational resources in their classrooms and are leaders in using and advocating for open course material.

Nominations are submitted by colleagues and students, and awardees are selected by a USG subcommittee. Each of this year’s awardees received multiple nominations praising their use of open educational resources. The 2025 USG Faculty Open Educational Resources Leadership Award recipients are:

Dr. Tomer Kanan, Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition, transformed anatomy education by spearheading D.O.C.T.O.R., a free 3D cadaver web app that mirrors his lab’s physical models, enabling more than 800 students per year to explore multi-layer anatomy at no cost.

Dr. Michael McLaughlin, Department of Accounting, embodies open‑access leadership through Edspira, his self‑authored “free business school,” which replaces costly intermediate‑accounting texts with free guides, videos and practice templates, extending high-quality accounting instruction to students worldwide.

Dr. Ryan Hazelton, Department of Physics, revamped the engineering‑track physics sequence by adopting OpenStax University Physics, embedding free simulations and auto‑linked homework, enabling access to a rigorous, interactive learning experience to 600‑plus students each semester.

Please join us in congratulating the 2025 awardees, each of whom will receive a $500 award. We also wish to thank the nominators and the USG Faculty OER Leadership Subcommittee for their commitment to this impactful program.

Sincerely,

Karen J. Colley
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

Rhea Ballard-Thrower
University Librarian and Dean of Libraries

Haider “Asa” Asad
Undergraduate Student Government President

Nathan Thokkudubiyyapu

Undergraduate Student Government Director of Student Success

For more information, please contact:
Office of the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
provost@uic.edu