Congratulations!. You have found an open textbook that looks like a promising candidate for your course. It has an open license that allows you to modify the content to fit your specific learning objectives, and you want to take advantage of that license and customize the content.

Adapt. Remix. Modify. Whichever term you use, the end result is the same; a customized version of a textbook suitable for your context. This is one of the primary affordances of open textbooks released with Creative Commons licenses; educators can legally change, alter, delete, add to, improve, and enhance the resource to fit their specific context (the one exception, of course, are textbooks released with a No Derivative Creative Commons license).

However, just because educators now have the legal means to modify an open textbook, not many do. In their 2012 paper Examining the Reuse of Open Textbooks, Hilton, Wiley & Lutz note that only about 7.5% of instructors who adopt an open textbook modify the textbook.

Of the modifications that do occur, Hilton, Wiley & Lutz outline 4 common modification activities faculty undertake when they do adapt an open textbook.

  1. Additions occur when a user adds material to a book by inserting one or more new chapters, sections, paragraphs, or characters in an existing paragraph.
  2. Deletions occur are when a user removes one or more chapters, sections, paragraphs, or characters from an existing paragraph.
  3. Reorders occur when a user changes the sequence in which chapters appeared in the book or the sequence in which sections appeared in a chapter.
  4. Remixing occurs when a user imports content from one book into another book.

Depending on the scope of the changes you wish to make, modifying a textbook can be a challenging task with both technical and pedagogical challenges.

Where do you start?

Start by determing what needs to be changed. That wil vary greatly between adaptation projects, depending on your needs and what you feel the book is missing. Below is a list of reasons why you may want to modify an open textbook.

Attributing a resource - an example

But before I get to the list, I want to demonstrate how to give attribution for a modifed resource because the list below has been taken from somewhere else. It was released under a Creative Commons license and I modified the list, so I need to attribute it. I can do that by including the following statement on this page:

The following list is a modified list that appears in the article Why Remix Open Educational Resources? created by Liam Green-Hughes. It is used under a CC-BY license.

And with that, I have correctly attributed this list. I could have included this attribution at the bottom of the page in order not to break the flow of the text and the reading experience for you. But I wanted to explicitly point out the attribution for those of you who are curious about how to attribute a resource. The next reading in this week talks more about CC licenses & how to correctly attribute content.

Ok, onto the list

Here is that modified list of reasons why you may want to modify an open textbook.

  1. Adapt the material to make it more accessible for people with different disabilities
  2. Insert cultural specific references to make a concept easier to understand
  3. Translate it into another language
  4. Correct any errors or inaccuracies
  5. Update the book to add the latest discoveries or theories
  6. Insert more media or links to other resources
  7. Chop the book into smaller chunks that might be easier to learn from, or could be reused elsewhere
  8. Adapt it for a different audience
  9. Change the target educational level
  10. Add input and participation from students who might be using the textbook
  11. Expand the textbook by adding in other inforamtion
  12. Insert a different point of view to that originally given in the material
  13. Adapt it for different teaching situations

For example, maybe you find a textbook that is pretty good, but could be stronger with the addition of case studies, or maybe the case studies could use a Canadian perspective. Those would make great open textbook adaptations.

The Challenge of Creating a Consistent Adaptation

One of the challenges of adapting an open textbook is to create a final product that is consistent throughout. It is highly recommended that you assess the original textbook before you begin. Once this has been done, attempt to match all revised and new text, resources, layout and citation styles to that of the original work.

Assessing language and tone

Begin by assessing the style and tone of the original text. Here are some elements to be aware,

  • Is the tone of the language formal, or friendly and conversational?
  • How does the author address the reader? From a distance or does the author include the reader with phrases such as “we learn” and “you will see”.
  • How is punctuation used? For example, are serial commas used, i.e. a comma before “and” when listing three or more things: “the cat, the dog, and the horse” OR “the cat, the dog and the horse”.
  • How long is the typical sentence? Paragraph?
  • Pay attention to the word count for existing chapters (average and range). Try to maintain this count for both new and revised chapters. Ask your project manager for assistance, if required.

What is the layout?

As you review the textbook, take note of the following,

  • Does each chapter contain specific sections such as Learning Objectives, Exercises, Section Quiz, Summary, highlighted points of interest?
  • Does the author use lists? If so, are bullets or numbers used or something else?
  • How are headings used? Are sub-headings used?
  • How long are sections under a heading or sub-heading?
  • Are italics used and how?

How are resources used?

Resources refer to all items other than text, such as photos, graphs, diagrams and multimedia content (video or audio links). Pay attention to what types of resources the original author used, how often they are inserted and how they are labeled.

  • Resources typically have a heading (e.g. Figure 1), description and citation. Take note of how this information is arranged in relation to the image in the original work.
  • New types of resources can be added to the adapted version; however, keep the overall textbook in mind. When adding  a new type of resource ensure that it enhances the flow of the book.

References and citation style

When you assess the textbook, identify both the citation style, and how and where references are listed in the book (at the end of each chapter or at the end of the book). Be sure to follow the same style.

Some final general considerations before you being an adaptation project

There are things that can make a simple adaptation more complex. These are things you should consider at the start of your project as they will influence the complexity of your project.

  1. What technical format is the textbook in? Not all document formats are conducive to editing. You will need the source files of the textbook if you plan to do a major modification of the book. Editing a PDF document, for example, is an extremely difficult task. While editing a Word document is fairly easy to do.
  2. Students prefer format flexibility They want to be in control. Most students will be happy with a PDF document, others may prefer a website version of the book, while others may prefer ePub or print. If you can, try to make your book available in a number of formats.
  3. Save all your source material & release it with the book. This allows others to remix your work. So, if you create your textbook in Word and then convert to PDF to districute to your students, also make the Word document available somewhere so that someone who may want to make a copy of your book & modify it for their needs can do so.
  4. Keep it simple, especially if you are approaching a remix project for the first time. While it may be tempting to make a number of major changes to a textbook before releasing it to your students, think of the textbook as a living resource that you can improve incrementally over time.

Permission to modify

When it comes to working with open textbooks (and, indeed, open educational resources in general), one of the conceptual hurdles that faculty sometime have is around the notion of modifying. What exactly can can be modified within the scope of an open textbook? And won't the original author get upset if I change their work?

Changing someone elses work can feel uncomfortable. But rest assured that, if the author of the textbook has released their textbook under a Creative Commons license that allows modifications (which is any Creative Commons license that does not have a No Derivative (ND) attribute added to it) then they expect that you will change the content, proviidng that you give them the proper attribution (and we'll get into this).

But what can you change?

In a nutshell, anything and everything in an open textbook can be changed as long as the conditions of the open license are met. The modifications or changes you make can be fairly minor or major depending on what you need to do to make the book work for you.That is the beauty and power of open textbooks. You are in charge of the resource. You have been given permission to change it ahead of time by the original author. Take advantage of it. They want you to.

Last modified: Sunday, 9 February 2014, 2:25 PM