The cost of textbooks and higher education continues to rise. Students face no-win decisions between expensive textbooks and basic needs. In order to disrupt this situation, faculty and students are driving the development of open-access textbooks and instructional materials.
But where do you begin with creating an open textbook? As instructors of a Critical Thinking in Academic Research course, we wanted an open-access textbook and up-to-date ancillary materials that met the flexibility of the content covered in class. While we used a wide variety of web sites to support the course content, a single textbook that covered all aspects of the course eluded us. Open access information literacy content was not hard to find, however the critical thinking components were best handled by a commercial textbook.
We surveyed our students and listened to their requests for a low cost or free textbook. We decided it was time to take the leap and create something of our own. At that time we were using both an open-access textbook focused on information literacy and a commercial critical thinking textbook. Ultimately we decided not to reinvent the wheel, but to adapt the open access book and dig deep to find a comparable critical thinking open textbook with the content needed to balance the research information.
We will share how we got our project started. We’ll describe what we knew, what we didn’t, how we planned our project, and how to overcome hurdles that pop up along the way.
Learning Outcomes: 1. Discuss the realistic picture and timetable for adapting textbooks
2. Identify the practical steps for online textbook collaboration
