In Challenge #1, you found an open textbook in the BCcampus Open Textbook collection. One of the advantages of open textbooks is that they can be modified and adapted under certain licenses. This means that if you want to only use a few chapters, or want to change an image or an example in an open textbook, you can do that! You can also grab sections of the textbook and cut and paste it into a different document so that you or your students can edit it.
Examples
- Principles of Microeconomics is an example of a textbook that has been reorganized and had the addition of 200 multiple choice questions, examples, eight case studies including questions and solutions, and over 200 editable figures as part of the adaptation.
- Introduction to Sociology – Canadian Edition is an example of an open textbook that has been Canadianized as part of the adaptation. More information about the process of creating that adaptation is described here.
- Teaching in a Digital Age was originally published in the BCcampus Open Textbook collection in English and now has translations in multiple languages.
Keep in mind that modifying an open textbook doesn’t need to be a big undertaking and involve the whole textbook, like the examples above. It may be as simple as changing an example in the book, or swapping out a photo or image.
Challenge
Scenario: You want to include a page of an open textbook as part of your course materials, but you need to change a few things on that page. This challenge will show you an easy way to do that.
Choose one of the two Options:
Option A
- Go to this page from Tony Bates’ open textbook called Teaching in the Digital Age.
- Select the contents of the page and copy and paste it into a new word document.
- Scroll the bottom of the page to the Activity Box. Remove the podcast reference. Change one of the questions. Save the document as you would normally onto your computer.
- In the comments section for this challenge share how you think the ability to modify an open textbook could help you in your teaching OR share what changes you would make to the textbook you found in Challenge #1.
Option B
- Go back to the textbook you found in Challenge #1.
- Select a page and copy and paste that page into a word document.
- Change one thing on that page and save onto your computer as you normally would onto your computer.
- In the comments section for this challenge share how you think the ability to modify an open textbook could help you in your teaching OR share what changes you would make to the textbook you found in Challenge #1.
Note: Attribution, or citing the source, is an important part of adapting CC content. We will cover that in another challenge.
The ability to modify an open text book is indispensable for correcting errata, customizing for specific topics and/or groups and for expanding on the published material
It is very useful to be able to change or remove some part of an open textbook based on the topics you teach or the skill and knowledge level of your learners.
The ability to customize a textbook to be consistent with my course syllabus would be a great way to give the students a free resource that is consistent with other course materials.
For challenge 1, I chose Open Pedagogoy – link is in my comment for that Challenge. I then opened it and found a page about using Wikipedia. I added two questions at the bottom that I would pose to participants or learners. They would read the paragraph then respond and in this way they would be more involved in the material for their own use.
I found an example of an assignment where students together create a “living” annotated bibliography that they will build together over a term….a project that will lend itself to learning research skills, citation management, and evaluating sources with the outcome a shared set of resources.
The textbook I chose in challenge 1 was ‘Northern and Indigenous Health and Healthcare’. Case studies generally enhance student engagement, it would be helfpul to embed case studies along side content presented in an open textbook.
I chose to look at this page in the open text I found in Challenge #1 https://opentextbc.ca/flofacilitatorguide/chapter/flo-fundamentals/
Being able to make changes to the content to suit the context and content for the course that I would facilitate would be immensely helpful. For example, this text makes reference to Moodle while UBC uses Canvas, so changing that in the text, as well as inserting images that are Canvas specific would be helpful. I would also change the structure or directions for specific tasks for each week, and the facilitation organization in this section:
The topics discussed in this course are:
Week 1: Building Learning Community (facilitated by course facilitators).
Week 2: Diversity of Learners (facilitated by the orange team).
Week 3: Responsive Facilitation (facilitated by the blue team).
Week 4: Collaboration (facilitated by the yellow team).
Week 5: Reflective Practice (facilitated by the green team).
To be able to modify and make changes in a few seconds is fantastic specially to make it suitable for students’ understanding.
It’s easier than most people think. Even minor changes can help tailor the material to your students and make their experience that much richer.
Hi!
In challenge 1, I selected the eHealth Assessment Manual: an evidence-based approach. For challenge 2, I copied part of one of the case studies and adapted parts to disseminate information related to planning actions for the Northeastern scenario in Brazil, in a new document.