Using Open Textbooks

Adopting and Using Open Textbooks
Once an open textbook has been discovered, vetted, and selected, the real work begins!

The process of adopting open textbooks is highly dependent on local policies. This topic explores several examples and give tips for using adopted texts with students. See the College Open Textbook's Guide for Adopting.

Adoption Rules and Policies
The rules for adoption varies from college to college.

Should I expect my students to buy a bound copy of the textbook or use it online?

Students who use an open textbook online will need access to a computer and an internet connection, preferably a high-speed connection. If the textbook can be downloaded, the students will be able to study the textbook while offline. If you require the students to bring the textbook to class, you will need to provide a computer lab or the students will need a printed or bound copy.

What are the rules for when and how an open textbook must be adopted?

There are as many answers to this question as there are departments in institutions. The onus is on the instructor or professor to determine the laws, institution rules, and department policies. Many instructors have complete freedom, others have very tight rules. In general, however, the rules are the same as they are for adopting commercial textbooks.

Adoption Best Practices
Beyond the rules are best practices and these can be summarized as No surprises. All stakeholders must be alerted that the class will have a new textbook. Which of these stakeholders would need to know about an open textbook adoption on your campus?


 * Curriculum Committee, Department, Dean or other group that approves textbook adoptions
 * Computer Lab and College network support teams
 * Bookstore
 * Library
 * Media center
 * Print Shop
 * Teaching assistants
 * Students

Timing is everything. Participants in this class should be thinking about adopting an open textbook for a term at least a few months in the future. To adopt too quickly will cause problems for that class and for future open textbook adoptions. The last thing we want are students confused about where and how to acquire the textbook, bookstore managers upset about lost revenues and profits, and peer instructors wondering why all the students are trying to move to the class with the low-cost textbook!

You can complete a time schedule like the one below for an instructor. Add additional tasks based on your situation.

For instructors who have recently changed textbook, there may be an additional delay. Adopting an open textbook removes the need for new students to be able to purchase used books; even bound open textbooks are less expensive than used commercial textbooks. On the other hand, adoption of an open textbook does not benefit those students wishing to sell a commercial open textbook.

How the Students Will Use the Textbook
College Open Textbooks examined how students gained access to the open textbook Collaborative Statistics. While most said in advance that they wanted a printed textbook, only about 1/3 bought the bound textbook and only one student printed the entire textbook from a computer. She used her employer's paper and toner. Self-printing an open textbook costs more than bound copies. In addition, purchasing a binder is usually required to hold the single-sided volume. The size and weight is greater than for a bound book also.

Instructors greatly influence the choice to use a textbook online versus on paper. If the instructor expects the students to have the textbook in class, either a computer lab must be provided or the students must have a paper copy. Not all students have portable computers and, for those who do, there are issues of battery life, breakage, and theft. If possible, instructors should avoid requiring use of the textbook in the classroom. To point out a specific item in a textbook, the instructor can project that on the classroom screen.

Checklist for Adopting an Open Textbook
While specifics and time schedules vary from institution to institution and instructor to instructor, the steps in adoption and use can be enumerated and checked off. Some will be eliminated if they do not apply in a particular situation. This checklist assumes that an open textbook has been located and vetted.

Rubric for evaluating quality of remixed open content

 * Matrix for Evaluating Quality of Remix/Reuse Content

Watch as a fictitious professor goes through the process of adopting an open textbook

 * Janet Spencer -Model of Adoption

OER (Open Educational Resource) Handbook for Educator
"The purpose of this handbook is to help you use, create, and share 'open educational resources' (OER). Digital technologies, combined with the enablers of our networked society, provide teachers, lecturers and trainers with new and exciting opportunities to rediscover and implement a core value of education, namely to share knowledge freely"

(OER Handbook - http://tw0.us/B9j)

Some informative selections are highlighted for your convenience below:
 * The Copyright Paradox file
 * Explanation of The Cathedral and the Bazaar approaches

Real people - Testimonials of Adopters
Listen to how faculty at community colleges in disciplines as diverse as Sociology, Physics, and Economics adopted open textbooks in their classrooms and hear the reactions of their students.


 * Dr. Lisa McDonnell - Video Testimony file
 * Prof. Erik Christensen - Video Testimony file
 * http://wikieducator.org/User:Brianevans Brian Evans] report on his study of Open Textbook Costs.

Course From Desire2Learn
Course content from the ABT course on “Presentation Software” in a D2L was exported. Scott Leslie, ported this content to platforms that would then output HTML (website), PDF (for print) and ePub (for eReaders. He tested two platforms, Pressbooks (http://pressbooks.com)  and Mediawiki  (http://mediawiki.bccampus.ca).

Pressbooks is a free service built on Wordpress and extended with plugins for a few different digital humanties units, and heavily adapted to focus specifically on BOOK production.

You can see the resulting site at http://sleslie.pressbooks.com/ The PDF version is http://sleslie.pressbooks.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/4167/files/exports/presentation-software-1327619147.pdf The ePub version is http://sleslie.pressbooks.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/4167/files/exports/presentation-software-1327346309.epub

The second was our own instance of Mediawiki, extended with some of the work they have done at WikiEducator.

You can see the resulting site at http://mediawiki.bccampus.ca/index.php/Textbooks:Presentation_Software The PDF version is at http://mediawiki.bccampus.ca/images/c/cb/Presentation_Software_Text.pdf The ePub version is http://mediawiki.bccampus.ca/images/a/a8/Presentation_software_textbook.epub

In both cases, MUCH more could be done on styling. If indeed the ABT Faculty want to move forward with this specific book, we would do further work. This is not intended as a finished product.

Both platforms have different advantages.

For Further Information

 * Join our Adopters Group
 * Join our Research Group
 * Author and publishing tools Author Tools