If you're interested in creating a new open textbook, there are several good guides that can walk you through the process. One such text is Authoring Open Textbooks by Melissa Falldin and Karen Lauritsen. They include a fifteen-step checklist (p. 4) of actions that should be taken when putting together a new OER, from licensing and accessibility checks to understanding how choice of platform influences final product. I list them here with some additional commentary geared towards faculty at Gettysburg College.
1. Familiarize yourself with open licenses, if you haven’t already. Select which license you’d like to use, as it may impact what openly licensed material you can include in your work.
Visit the Creative Commons website to review the four licensing conditions - Attribution (by), ShareAlike (sa), NonCommercial (nc), NoDerivatives (nd) - and how those conditions can be combined by the copyright holder to create a license that grants users permission to use the work in some ways but not others.
For example, combining Attribution (by) and NonCommerical (nc) creates a CC-BY-NC license that allows free re-use of the work as long as the user attributes that work to the author and does not profit from its re-use. Therefore, those who want to profit from their work - by selling print copies of their open textbook, for example, in addition to offering it free online - could not use material licensed as CC-BY-NC.
Similarly, someone wanting to employ a NoDerivatives (nd) license to their work, so as to make it impossible for that work to be rearranged or revised by users, could not include in that textbook material licensed as CC-BY-SA because the ShareAlike condition means that reuses of the material must be licensed the same way, i.e. CC-BY-SA.
For additional examples and more detailed explanations, see the Creative Commons webpage dealing with the different licenses.
2. Learn where to find openly licensed material you can use. Librarians can help! You can also search Google by license. If you will be creating material (photos, for example) consider how to openly share those assets with others (like Flickr).There are many good websites for finding quality OER. A few of them are:
OER Commons
Open Textbook Network
OpenStax
MIT OpenCourseWare
Open Yale Courses
BCcampus OpenEd
3. Decide where you plan to share your completed open textbook and what those repositories, libraries and distributors may require.
Your OER will live in The Cupola, Gettysburg College’s institutional repository, where it can be linked to and its usage can be tracked. Like most other IRs, The Cupola is an open access repository, meaning it contains works that can be freely viewed in their entirety. It also contains metadata only records for works by faculty and students that are currently embargoed or behind a paywall.
4. Consider who may be able to offer help at your institution. Reach out to librarians and instructional designers, for example.
The Scholarly Communications Department at Musselman Library can provide support at multiple points in the process, but we are particularly adept at locating open resources, evaluating licenses, weighing the pros and cons of a given authoring platform, and ensuring OER adhere to accessibility guidelines.
5. If working with others, take the time to meet and clarify expectations and roles. Draft and sign a contract or MOU.
Less formal than a contract, a memorandum of understanding (MOU) is a great way of ensuring that all parties involved know and agree to their roles during the creation process but also in future revisions and ongoing updates.
6. Develop a timeline for textbook production. Include writing time as well as editing, proofreading and peer review time.
7. Develop a plan for your textbook’s design, including how you want to define the content and element structure. Each chapter needs to be consistent with the next so that students know what to expect.
While the textbook should be organized in an understandable manner for students, don't fall into the trap of creating an open textbook that is identical to the one you are replacing. One of the major benefits of authoring your own open textbook is the ability to tailor it so that it perfectly suits the schedule of your course and the learning goals of your students. If you've always wanted to experiment with new textbook designs, now's your chance! Remember that, unlike with a traditional textbook, you will be able to revise this one easily, meaning that novel features can always be replaced by more trusted ones if they prove ineffective.
8. Decide which style guide you’d like to use for your textbook and use it as a reference.
9. Commit to making your textbook accessible for a range of students.
Use the BC Open Textbook Accessibility Toolkit to ensure that all users can access your work and easily use it in a course.
10. Make a plan for how you’re going to handle updates and revisions so that your textbook stays up-to-date.
Unlike traditional textbooks, open textbooks can and should be updated so that they stay current in terms of text and illustrations or examples. This is a wonderful benefit but only if it taken advantage of by authors. To do that, you must incorporate revisions into your standard scholarly workflow. But what if you have no interest in revising the book after you have used it to teach a few times? In that case, you should make sure that others are able to update your work for use in their own courses. Make sure they are legally able to do that by licensing your work accordingly (see Step 1 above).
11. Create a list of peers who are willing to review your textbook and offer constructive feedback.
12. Find a community who can support your work. Decide which tool or tools may be helpful for writing your textbook. This may differ depending on whether you’re writing solo or with others.
Open textbook creation is often a collaborative endeavor and several tools have been created as part of a community of practice surrounding OER creation. Some tools and platforms can only be used if the user agrees that members of the community can not only access but adapt and revise the works created using them. The Rebus Community for Open Textbook Creation is one example.
13. Survey which publishing tools look like a good fit for your textbook. Consider their capabilities related to your planned textbook content and elements.
A few options include Google Docs, WordPress, PressBooks, and the Open Author tool at OER Commons.
14. Jump in!
15. Share lessons from your experience with your colleagues....
The Scholarly Communications Department at Musselman Library would love to hear about your experiences and help you share the knowledge you've gained with your peers!
From Authoring Open Textbooks by Melissa Falldin and Karen Lauritsen (2017). Available at https://press.rebus.community/authoropen/
From Authoring Open Textbooks by Melissa Falldin and Karen Lauritsen (2017). Available at https://press.rebus.community/authoropen/
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