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This approach is one of five suggested ways of applying open pedagogy in the learning environment and using Open Educational Resources (OERs) from existing repositories. On this page we define the approach, emphasise its requirements and use examples to show practical evidence of applying the suggested approaches in the educational settings.
Creating substantially new open textbooks or open courses can be both challenging and the most rewarding among all other approaches. In this approach, you would start with a need for a good quality resource that is not currently available to meet the learning objectives. Or perhaps you have a mission of cutting costs and you want to develop an open textbook as an alternative to expensive publishers’ resources. Alternatively, this could be a new resource that you need to tailor with a specific type of learner in mind.
Requirements
Unless you have a substantial reason to tackle the ‘Authoring OER’ approach, you are most likely to consider the other approaches. This approach will require you to thoroughly consider the following.
Authoring and publishing tools
Depending on the type of the resource you are building, authoring tools can be of a wide range. However, there are some specialised OER authoring tools that allow for collaboration, integration of interactive content, licensing using open licensing, and publishing in the public domain. See examples below.
Importantly, in addition to the technological tools, authoring textbooks requires knowledge, structure, and design elements. You can start with available guides for authoring textbooks such as the “Developing a Textbook Structure” module from University of Minnesota. Logical structure helps in the learning process and motivates learners to reflect, and extend their understanding. The Rebus Guide to Publishing Open Textbooks (So Far) is another valuable resource to help in this approach.
Community
The role of the community by far could be the most important element that contributes to the success of OER projects. Opportunities for collaboration can exist within the same faculty, through partnerships or cross-institutional and international collaborations. Having a group of collaborators with different roles can speed up the process, ensure the quality of the final outcome and sustain the project in the long term.
Faculty and Institutional support
Authoring OER can sometimes entail financial costs. Securing funding for large projects can help with hosting and publishing fees, hiring experts that are lacking from the project team, and establishing motives for participation. Some universities offer grants for OER projects as part of Learning and Teaching grants, however, many rely on external funds.
Tools & Resources
Pressbooks is an accessible, open-source platform that allows you to easily create, write, and publish your own books and beautifully format them into many different readable formats (PDF, ePUB & Web version). The software is built on WordPress with modification of the interfaces to reflect the intention of authoring books. It is available as a hosted service for self-publishers (pressbooks.com), supported institutional hosting (PressbooksEdu), or self-hosting of the software available from pressbooks.org.Another great example is Rebus. Rebus Community is a great idea that supports a model of publishing that is collaborative, well supported, and open. The platform offers many services including professional development of open textbooks publishing.
OER Commons supports the development of a wide range of OER granularities. In addition to being a public digital library of open educational resources, it offers tools to help with creating OER, and collaborate with educators around the world to improve curriculum.
Similar to OERCommons, H5P (UTS users: https://uts.h5p.com/content) and Google tools are popular platforms for generating OER of different types and sizes.
In 2020, the University of Southern Queensland and Edith Cowan University released their first inter-institutional open textbook Trauma Informed Behaviour Support: A Practical Guide to Developing Resilient Learners. The book guides educators working with primary school aged children to understand trauma as well as its impact on young children’s brains, behaviour, learning, and development. The authors of the book realised the role of community and by creating an interdisciplinary community of practice, they were able to leverage the wisdom and resources of a range of practitioners from around the world in disseminating and co-creating interdisciplinary resources.