Teaching Note—Adopting, Adapting, and Creating Open Textbooks: A Brief Guide for Faculty

Figures & data

Table 1. What is an instructor permitted to do with open and commercial textbooks?

Are Instructors Permitted to …	Commercial Textbook	Open Textbook
Assign readings and teach from the textbook?	Yes	Yes
Summarize, quote, and critique the textbook in a lecture or in writing?	Yes	Yes
Record videos or create assignments using content from the textbook and post them on an LMS platform?	Yes	Yes
Edit, customize, and add new content to the textbook?	No	Yes
Mix content from different textbooks together?	No	Yes
Post a free digital copy of the textbook on an LMS platform?	No	Yes
Create and publicly share slideshows, videos, or other resources that reuse and repurpose content from the textbook?	No	Yes

Note. LMS = learning management system.

Table 2. Overview of resources for open textbook projects

Pedagogical Need	Resources
Learning the basics of open textbooks and OER	OER Starter Kit (Elder, 2019) and workbook (Katz & Elder, 2020) 5R’s of OER (Wiley, n.d.)
Finding open textbooks and other OER to adopt or adapt	Open Textbook Library
	BCCampus textbook collection
	OER Commons
	Merlot
	Mason OER Metafinder
	Prof2Prof
	Open Social Work
Finding openly licensed media to remix into an open textbook	TED talks
	Pixabay
	Unsplash
	Pexels
Managing open textbook projects	Rebus community
	Rebus guide to publishing open textbooks (so far) (Ashok & Hyde, n.d.)
	BCCampus open education self-publishing guide (Aesoph, 2018)
Open textbook publication platforms	Pressbooks
	Libretexts
	Manifold
	Overleaf
	Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (formerly Createspace)

Elder, A. K. (2019). The OER starter kit. Iowa State University Digital Press. https://iastate.pressbooks.pub/oerstarterkit/front-matter/adaptations/

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Elder, A. K., & Katz, S. (2020). The OER starter kit workbook. CUNY Manifold. https://cuny.manifoldapp.org/read/the-oer-starter-kit-workbook/section/3567bc11-0e50-4c7e-98f0-81cdee1cdb63

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Wiley, D. (n.d.). Defining the “open” in open content and open educational resources. http://opencontent.org/definition/

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Ashok, A., & Hyde, Z. W. (2019). The Rebus guide to publishing open textbooks (so far). Rebus Community. https://press.rebus.community/the-rebus-guide-to-publishing-open-textbooks/

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Aesoph, L. M. (2018). BCcampus open education self-publishing guide. A reference for writing and self-publishing an open textbook. BCcampus. https://opentextbc.ca/selfpublishguide/

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