OER Guide

1. Refer to your course outline and learning objectives. Consider how you would like to teach the course (e.g., flipped classroom, open pedagogy, interactive exercises students can utilize on their own) 
2. Create an outline for your OER that covers the topics and any supplementary information (more on Textbook Outline)
3. Find other OER on the same or similar topics to see if they contain sections/chapters that can be adapted or used in your book
4. Map the individual resources to the corresponding topics on your OER outline to keep track of them. Be sure to include the links to the selected OER so you can refer back to them.   
5. Identify the overlaps and gaps of resources. Consider if you want to write your own content on the topics that you cannot find OER on. Alternatively, you can use copyrighted book chapters or articles on these topics but you should be aware of the copyright issues (See Incorporating Copyrighted Materials) 
6. Choose an editing tool such as Pressbooks and become familiar with it.
7. In Pressbooks, build out the skeletal structure for your book by creating modules and chapters that reflect your topical outline designed in step 2.
8. Populate your modules with content by importing files or copying and pasting content from other OER you found. Remember to provide attribution to the sources you use (see more information on OER Attribution Statements and Sheridan Library's Citation Guides)
9. Edit the imported materials and add your own content. Consider integrating multimedia and interactive elements (e.g., embed YouTube videos, H5P activities) in your OER. 
10. Revise, revise, and revise. Seek feedback or peer review during the process.

Consult with Sheridan’s Centre for Teaching & Learning for support on curriculum development and e-learning design.

Adapted from OER in the Classroom: From Curating to Creating Course Textbooks by Sarah Sinclair, Julie Warkentin, and Jonathan Filipovic and Self-Publishing Guide by BCcampus.