LibGuides: Open Educational Resources (OER): A Guide for Faculty: Authoring your own OER

Steps to authoring your own open textbook

So you want to author your own open textbook...Here are the steps you need to take!

Creating the content - Consider what the scope and purpose of authoring your own book before starting. Make sure to give proper attribution to others' work and if you use other OER as your basis, make sure that you are following Creative Commons licensing rules.
Put your content in a professional format - There are many tools for creating professional looking ebooks. Some of the most popular are Open Author, and Press Books.
Make it accessible - Accessibility is more important than ever. Ensure that your content can be read by all by following accessibility standards when you create it.
Decide your license - You'll need to assign a Creative Commons license to your work in order to make it usable and shareable by others. You can read more about the licenses and how to assign them at Creative Commons.
Make it editable - Another consideration is whether you want to allows others to edit and add to your work. If you do, make sure that you make editable versions of the book available.
Give it a home - Your new book needs a permanent place to call home! Consider your institution's repository or website.
Spread the word - Tell people about your new book by submitting it to popular OER repositories such as Merlot or OER Commons.

OER Textbooks and Digital Tools

OER Tools: Handouts & ebooks (Quick Start)

OER - Outline Workflow An outline workflow to assist faculty in the OER process. Faculty can refer for review from other more in depth reference materials.

Authoring Open Textbooks -- Authors:Melissa Falldin and Karen Lauritsen
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.
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Authoring Open Textbooks Copyright © 2017 by Open Education Network is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted
Modifying an Open Textbook: What You Need to Know -- Authors:Cheryl Cuillier; Amy Hofer; Annie Johnson; Kathleen Labadorf; Peter Potter; Richard Saunders; and Anita Walz
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 file and platform types are included.
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Modifying an Open Textbook: What You Need to Know Copyright © 2016 by Open Education Network is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

Resources

Here are some resources to get you started:

Modifying an Open Textbook: What You Need to Know
This is a concise guide to modifying and publishing OER books. Chapter 5 addresses publishing.
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.
This comprehensive guide walks you through the authoring process and includes case studies.
Self-Publishing Guide (OpenTextBC.ca)
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.
OER Commons - Creating with Open Author
Open Author helps you build and publish Open Educational Resources for you and for the benefit of educators and learners everywhere. (Account creation required).
Web Accessibility Guidelines
An overview of accessibility guidelines to follow when creating your content.
Accessibility Toolkit – 2nd Edition (OpenTextBC.ca)
The goal of the Accessibility Toolkit - 2nd Edition is to provide resources for each content creator, instructional designer, educational technologist, librarian, administrator, and teaching assistant to create a truly open textbook—one that is free and accessible for all students. This is a collaboration between BCcampus, Camosun College, and CAPER-BC.