Supplementary Resources

Open textbook authors should consider adding supplementary resources to their textbook whenever possible. Traditional textbooks often provide instructors with supplementary resources like slides, test banks, image banks, and videos. A BC Faculty Survey on Open Educational Resources (2015) found that 12% of faculty wouldn’t adopt an open textbook that was not accompanied by supplementary resources, and 28% reported that they felt they didn’t have the time to experiment with open education resources in their classroom.

After putting so much work into your open textbook, adding features that will make it easier for instructors to integrate your book into their teaching will increase the likelihood that it will be adopted or adapted.

Developing Supplementary Resources

One of the most important aspects of creating supplementary material is to make sure you publish the material using open-source or free software so anyone can use, reuse, and adapt the material without having to purchase proprietary software.

Also remember to include a Creative Commons license on the work to clearly communicate permitted uses to others.

Teaching Slides

Slides are one of the easiest and most important supplementary materials you can create to support instructors looking to adopt your textbook. Think about creating and publishing these slides using open-source or freely available software such as Google Slides or LibreOffice.

Test Banks

Including test banks and assessments with your textbook will make it that much more attractive to potential adopters. To ensure academic integrity, assessment material is typically provided to users only upon request. This can be done by placing the materials within a password protected site, or by requiring requests to be made by email.

Creating Supplementary Resources with Development Sprints

If you have adopted an open textbook or are building one from scratch, consider using a development sprint to build supplementary resources. Development sprints allow a group of instructors to work together over a short period, usually one or two days, to develop open content.

References

Lalonde, C. (2015). Early findings from BC faculty survey on open educational resources. https://open.bccampus.ca/2015/05/26/early-findings-from-bc-faculty-survey-on-open-educational-resources/