Adapting or changing an existing OER textbook doesn’t need to be onerous. The changes you make can be simple such as:
- Re-titling the book, some or all of its chapters, or its chapter sections
- Adding one or two new images
- Removing a chapter that isn’t pertinent to your course
- Isolating a chapter to be used, leaving the rest of the book behind
Sometimes, an adaptation might require more than a few simple changes. For example, you may want to remove a significant number of chapters — leaving behind just the ones that fit the course curriculum. Or, you might want to reorder content to more accurately fit the order in which material is presented in a course. Maybe you find an open textbook that fits your content, and you want to add new examples and/or exercises.
Below are 10 more reasons adapting an open textbook might be for you:
- Address a particular teaching style or learning style
- Adjust for a different grade or course level
- Address diversity needs
- Meet a cultural, regional, or national preference
- Make the material more accessible for people with disabilities
- Add material contributed by students or material suggested by students
- Translate the material into another language
- Correct errors or inaccuracies
- Update the book with current information
- Add more media or links to other resources
Keeping Track of Changes
When you customize any OER, you retain copyright of all new material you create. This means that even if the new material you create is released under an open license, as the author, you will receive attribution for your contribution.
As you edit and make changes (text and images) and/or add new material, such as a chapter or section within a chapter, keep a list so these additions/changes can be included as part of the Copyright Notice, and accurately attributed to you, the author. Minor changes, such as fixing grammatical or spelling mistakes, don’t need to be documented.
If you add material from another openly licensed work to your adaptation, especially text, record the source and where it is used in your adapted version. This information is needed for the wording and placement of each attribution statement required for each open CC BY (Creative Commons Attribution) licensed work you use.
When remixing materials from multiple sources, complexity can mount. One strategy for keeping yourself organized, and making sure that all your sources get properly credited, is to keep an ongoing table of contents as you work.
You can create your own tools to keep track, or use this spreadsheet as a model. Feel free to adapt or modify this resource to suit your own purposes.
Access this OER Content Template in Google Drive
Finally, know that adaptations don’t have to happen all at once, nor do they have to be done by one person. Will the adaptation benefit other faculty members in your department? Consider making it a collaborative effort. Students can also be very integral to the customization process – they can provide feedback about what areas of a text might be most effective to change, and how.
This content is adapted from the following work:
- “Faculty OER Toolkit” by BC Campus is licensed under CC BY 4.0
Unless otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.