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Whether you are considering creating supplemental materials for an existing open resource, customizing an open educational resource to fit your course needs, or authoring an open textbook from scratch, there are resources to guide your project. Below are links to resources that provide information on a variety of topics an author may consider when creating open resources.
The Library Publishing Project differs significantly from a traditional university press, in that the products of the project are freely available worldwide. Because of this, the traditional funding models and workflows a university or academic press uses do not apply.
Library Publishing Project
The Library provides access to Pressbooks, which is an open book publishing software that supports faculty in creating globally accessible Open Educational Resources (OER). This is part of the library's ongoing strategy to support open educational resources and open pedagogical practices. UTRGV's Library Publishing Project is focused on the creation of materials that are free, reflective of our students, and feature their direct input and experiences as part of their learning process.
If you have ideas about a project or would like to learn more about creating OER click here to request a consultation.
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Pressbooks Network - Open Pedagogy and Library Publishing Project is available to all UTRGV faculty.
Main Types of Supported Publishing
Traditional Book Publishing
With traditional book publishing, a faculty member or a group of faculty can create an open textbook. These projects can be grant or university funded to support the labor involved in creating the resource. The library will work with faculty members on creating a project plan and an agreement that confirms the project aligns with the Library Publishing Project’s goals.
The library will also provide a base level of support in helping navigate the Pressbooks platform and provide some simple publishing services, such as DOI minting. Funding from either a grant or the university would be required to cover outsourced copyediting via Scribe, paying peer reviewers and sensitivity readers, and other miscellaneous costs included in publishing open textbooks.
Open Pedagogy
The second method has a lower initial cost and is more integrated with teaching. Open Pedagogy is a teaching style that emphasizes the co-creation of course materials with students via certain techniques such as non-disposable assignments. The library will help guide interested faculty members in setting up projects like these, covering issues such as student consent, curation of the created materials, and integrating Pressbooks into the course.
Faculty will work primarily with the Open Education Librarian and COLTT to set up and design relevant projects for their courses. This approach to creating OER leverages the Library's proximity to the teaching process in a way that a traditional press never could. It creates materials that are reflective of our student population and relevant to their educational needs.
At regular intervals, the projects would be cleaned up and released as a single “final” edition. The projects would continue as part of course instruction, and subsequent editions could be released over time. This method could also encompass grant funded digital collections projects that require learning materials as deliverables, similar to the RGV Primary Source Guides project. To learn more visit our Teaching with Open Pedagogy webpage.
Authoring Open Textbooks
This guide is for faculty authors, librarians, project managers and others who are involved in the production of open textbooks in higher education and K-12. Content includes a checklist for getting started, publishing program case studies, textbook organization and elements, writing resources and an overview of useful tools.
Making Ripples: A Guidebook to Challenge Status Quo in OER Creation
Making Ripples: A Guidebook to Challenge Status Quo in OER Creation is a short resource designed to expand your understanding of inequities in the educational systems through breaking down the work into smaller pieces with opportunities for you to reflect, identify strategies for action, and locate resources and community members to connect with. The purpose of this guide is to explore strategies for you as OER creators to incorporate equitable practices into your workflows.
Modifying an Open Textbook: What you Need to Know
This is a five-step guide for faculty, and those who support faculty, who want to modify an open textbook. Step-by-step instructions for importing and editing common open textbook files and platform types are included.
The Rebus Guide to Publishing Open Textbooks (So Far)
The Rebus Guide to Publishing Open Textbooks (So Far) is a living repository of collective knowledge, written to equip all those who want to publish open textbooks with the resource they need.
Self-Publishing Guide
The BCcampus Open Education Self-Publishing Guide is a reference for individuals or groups wanting to write and self-publish an open textbook. This guide provides details on the preparation, planning, writing, publication, and maintenance of an open textbook.
Services Provided by the University Library
Through the Library Publishing Project, the University Library can offer support on a variety of topics including.
- Access to Pressbooks
- Pressbooks support and training
- Migrating projects into Pressbooks
- DOI minting
- Project support for Open Pedagogy Projects
- Externally funded Scribe editing which includes
- Copyediting
- Proofreading
- Indexing
- Typesetting
- Page and Cover Design
- Ancillary Development
- Multilingual Editing
- Prepress Services and Electronic Formats
- Learn more about working with Scribe
- Metadata through Thoth
Join a Community
The Rebus Community is a global community working together to create and share Open Educational Resources (OER). Here you’ll find people, processes, and tools to support your publishing efforts. You can use the platform to:
- start an open textbook project
- give and receive guidance on publishing open textbooks
- post and respond to calls for contributors, and
- connect with global communities that are changing the world through Open Education