CONTENTS


Adoption of Open Textbooks

A Quick Start in 4 Steps

Step 1:  Find an Open Textbook 

Search for an open textbook from the following sources:

  1. CK12 Flexbooks
  2. Creative Commons Open Textbooks
  3. OpenStax CNX (Connexions)
  4. Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources
  5. Open Culture
  6. Open Textbook Library
  7. Global Text Project
  8. MERLOT (books & other resources)
  9. OER Commons
  10. Orange Grove Text Plus
  11. Textbook Revolution
  12. The Assayer  
  13. Wikibooks

Step 2:  Review and Select an Open Textbook

As you search for open textbooks in repositories, consider what criteria you will use to select appropriate an open textbook for your own use. You can develop your own criteria or consider adapting existing criteria from other sources, such as MERLOT's Peer Review process and the Curriki Review System.

Make your selection based on criteria such as:

  • Quality of content, literary merit and format
  • Accuracy
  • Timeliness
  • Favorable reviews
  • Permanence/lasting value
  • Authority of author
  • Scope and depth
  • Physical quality
  • Formats available: print, CD-ROM, online, etc.
  • Reading level and writing style
  • Accessibility
  • Language(s)
  • Copyright restrictions on modification and reuse
  • Cultural relevance and cultural factors (race, ethnicity, language, nationality, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, income level, and occupation. Ensure that information is relevant to the intended students' social and cultural contexts.)

Step 3: Customize your Selection as desired

Few existing open textbooks will meet all your instructional needs so you may want to customize the open textbook you have selected. 

Consider the following ways you may want to modify the open textbook to make it more appropriate for your teaching style:

  • Combine two or more open textbooks and other OER.
  • Rearrange the content in the open textbook.
  • Add a glossary, hyperlinks, and test bank.
  • Make edits to improve accuracy and currency.
  • Make the content usable by students with visual impairment.

 

Step 4:  Disseminate The Open Textbook to Your Students

Disseminate your open textbook in either digital or print format to students in your course.  If printing is to be done, give instructions about appropriate use of printing services on your campus and try to coordinate with the student computer labs, library, bookstore, and print shop on campus.

You can"

1.  Email the website address of the open textbook to your students.

2.  Download the open textbook as a file (e.g., Word, Open Office, PDF) and email the file to your enrolled students.

3.  Post the website address or document file to your course management system (Moodle, Canvas, Blackboard etc.).

If the Word document file or PDF is too large to email or post, use a free online file storage or file sharing service such as dropbox.com or Google Drive that allows you to share files and folders.

 

This work is licensed by Judy Baker under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License