Learn more about OER with the OER Starter Kit (Elder and Katz, 2020)! This publication has been created to provide instructors with the basics ideas behind the use and creation of open education resources (OER).
Modifying an Open Textbook: What you Need to Know
This is a five-step guide for faculty who want to modify an open textbook. Step-by-step instructions for importing and editing common open textbook file and platform types are included.
One of the benefits of using OER is that you have options: you can choose to adopt materials as-is, adapt materials to better meet your needs, or create new materials to share openly with other instructors.
Adopt
If there are high-quality, peer-reviewed Open Educational Resources available on your course topic, and you do not feel the need to edit or otherwise alter them for use in your course, you might consider adopting them for use "as is." Adopting is the simplest way or including OER in your course, and the least time-intensive. This is most similar to a traditional textbook adoption.
Adapt
If there are OER available on the topic your course covers, but they are out-of-date or are too broad, you may want to consider adapting the materials. After checking that the Creative Commons license attached to the materials allows for adaptation, you may choose to edit the materials to tailor them to your course.
If there are existing OER available on the topic your course covers, but no single resource that covers all the needs of your course, you may want to consider building an "OER course pack," a selection of various OER, free online materials, and websites which make up the resources for use in a course. Like traditional course packs, these sets of materials can be extremely versatile and adaptable for different uses.
Create
If there are no high-quality OER available on your topic or if you have course materials that you believe are superior to the OER available to you online, you may want to consider creating or licensing your own OER course materials. This can be as simple as openly licensing and sharing a syllabus you currently use or sharing lesson plans on OER repositories like OER Commons. Other OER creation processes, such as publishing open textbooks, can be more complex.