Quick Start

Step 1: Find an Open Textbook

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.

Make your selection based on criteria such as:

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 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. The BookBuilder tool at CAST is just one of several tools that can be used to create your own customized version of the open textbook. Another tool is available from BongoBooks. If the open textbook you selected is in the Connexions repository, you can make your own copy of the open textbook then make your own modifications as a 'derivative work.' CK12 and Flat World Knowledge allow for development of modified versions of open textbooks.

Step 4: Disseminate Your Open Textbook to Your Students

Disseminate your open textbook in either digital or print format to students in your course. Be sure to give your students clear instructions about appropriate use of printing services on your campus. Try to coordinate with the student computer labs, library, bookstore, and printshop on your campus.

Do-It-Yourself

If the Word document file or PDF is too large to email or post, use a free online file storage or file sharing service.

Tour of Lulu Students can download and print the Word document file, PDF, or website contents. Campus Printshop Create a Word document file or PDF of the open textbook that you have selected. Open Office is another option. Email the file to your Campus Printshop per their specifications. Printing Services Create a file (e.g., Word, Open Office, PDF) of the open textbook that you have selected. Email the file to a printing service such as exlibris per their specifications.

EXAMPLE

Health Course Textbook

A textbook commonly adopted for a Healthy Lifestyles or Health Education course is An Invitation to Health by Hales. This 2007 textbook is 696 pages in length and has a list price of $108.95.  One open textbook alternative is selected content from MedlinePlus.  This content is free for downloading and printing.

Table 1

An Invitation to Health Table of Contents	Medline PlusOpen Textbook Equivalent
Chapter 1: Your Invitation to Health	Health Literacy Evaluating Health Information
Chapter 2: Changing for Life	Healthy Living
Chapter 3: Psychological Health	Mental Health
Chapter 4: Personal Stress Management	Stress
Chapter 5: The Joy of Fitness	Exercise and Physical Fitness
Chapter 6: Personal Nutrition	Nutrition
Chapter 7: Taking Control of Your Weight	Weight Control
Chapter 8: Communicating and Relating	Personality Disorders
Chapter 9: Personal Sexuality	Sexual Health
Chapter 10: Reproductive Choices	Reproductive Health
Chapter 11: Avoiding Addictive Behaviors and Drug Abuse	Drug Abuse
Chapter 12: Alcohol Use, Misuse, and Abuse	Alcohol Consumption
Chapter 13: Tobacco Use, Misuse, and Abuse	Smoking
Chapter 14: Defending Yourself Against Infectious Diseases	Immunization Infectious Diseases
Chapter 15: Keeping Your Heart Healthy	Heart Disease Prevention
Chapter 16: Preventing Cancer and Other Illnesses	Cancer
Chapter 17: Health-Care Consumerism and Complementary/Alternative Medicine	Complementary and Alternative Medicine Health Fraud
Chapter 18: Healthy Aging and the Circle of Life	Seniors Health
Chapter 19: Staying Safe: Preventing Injury, Violence, and Victimization	Injuries Safety Domestic Violence
Chapter 20: Working toward a Healthy Environment	Environmental Health

TASK

List keywords based on your course objectives or student learning outcomes.

EXAMPLE

Health Course Textbook

For a typical Healthy Lifestyles or Health Education course, expected outcomes are that students will be able to:

Keywords identified for a Healthy Lifestyles course are:

TASK

Search for open content using the keywords you have identified. Several resources are available on the Internet that provide teachers with tools to identify and select open content for use in instruction.

Some of these are:

Also, see Discipline-Specific Content Sources, OER Public Domain Textbook Sources, and textbooks listed at OER Commons.

EXAMPLE

In order to locate open content for a health course, use search engines available on trusted U.S. Government sources of health information such as:

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

TASK 

Select or create appropriate open content for your course based on the objectives and keywords.

As you search for OER using these tools and repositories, consider what criteria you will use to select appropriate OER for your own use. 

Make your selection based on criteria such as:

Also, check for ratings, reviews or endorsements of your sources by professional societies and organizations.

EXAMPLE

Health Course Textbook

The open textbook content selected for a health education course from Medline Plus is subject to Quality Guidelines.

Figure 4

To determine quality and reliability of other health sources on the internet, look for the HONcode badge on the website. Websites that adhere to HONcode principles of the HON Foundation can post this badge.  Be sure to verify the authenticity of the badge. 

Figure 5

For additional health information that has been reviewed for quality, see the HEAL Reviewed Collection.

TASK

Organize open content that you have collected into an open textbook.  If the content you have selected does not comply with ADA Section 508 accessibility requirements and copyright laws, then you will need to modify the content or select other content. 

Accessibility  

Certain accessibility requirements must be addressed when selecting and developing OER for electronic dissemination to students. By law, ADA Section 508, learning materials, including interfaces, images, sounds, multimedia elements, and all other forms of information, must be made available for used by anyone, regardless of disability. Detailed information about accessibility guidelines are available at Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Certain accessibility requirements must be addressed when developing OER for electronic dissemination to students.  For example, see Distance Education: Access Guidelines for Students with Disabilities from the Chancellor’s Office California Community Colleges.

By law, ADA Section 508, learning materials, including interfaces, images, sounds, multimedia elements, and all other forms of information, must be made available for used by anyone, regardless of disability.  See this microtutorial about Section 508: http://21cif.imsa.edu/tutorials/micro/mm/508

Detailed information about accessibility guidelines are available at Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Copyright

Although documents, pictures, audio and other information are all easy to copy from the Internet, it is your responsibility to understand and respect the laws that protect the author(s) of electronic information. The copyright laws that govern information in all formats are complex. It is impossible to reduce them to a few simple rules. We encourage you to visit the pages listed here. They have been prepared by legal and other experts on the subject of copyright and can help you learn to decide for yourself whether it is appropriate to use electronic information sources in your work.A basic understanding of copyright, fair use, the TEACH Act, and intellectual property is necessary before using and developing OER in order to minimize the risk of violating the law. 

Did you know that the copyright notice © is no longer required for works published after March 1989?  This means that the absence of a copyright notice does not necessarily mean the work is within the public domain. If you are unfamiliar with copyright issues, you are encouraged to visit one or more of the many online tutorials exist which address these topics.

Watch this video clip that addresses the challenges faced by faculty when distributing copyrighted material from various sources: The Case of Dr. No.

Many basic tutorials about copyright are available:

EXAMPLE

Health Course Textbook

The Health Course open textbook alternative content available from MedlinePlus complies with Section 508 accessibility and is available for use under the Copyright Information stated on their website.

Photographs, illustrations, and multimedia selected from the Public Health Image Library (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) generally free for use without copyright restrictions:

TASK

Get necessary approvals and disseminate your open textbook for student use in your course. 

Approvals

Get approval from your academic department to use the open textbook in your course. Get your open text on the approved list for articulation purposes with transfer schools, especially if you teach at a community college.

Dissemination

Do-It-Yourself

Campus Printshop

Printing Services

EXAMPLE

Health Course Textbook

Virgil Bourassa and Fred Mednick from Teachers Without Borders posted a 2006 textbook on child health for their Health Education Course at Connexions. The textbook can be easily downloaded as PDF and printed from the site.

Health educator Stacey Hughes uses Lulu to distribute her 2006 book titled: Health & Social Care Teaching Resources.