Here are suggestions or reflections from the previous editors for your references.
Fall 2020
One area I feel that future student editors should be aware of is the type of software they choose to use. We chose Microsoft Office as the template for authors to insert material. Thereafter, we converted to Adobe and found discrepancies during the conversion. We found a lot of errors which were time consuming. Also, in the future ensure authors go through their chapter at least twice to ensure the links chose work properly.
Some of the areas we encountered that were troublesome and want to give feedback on are the following:
Before you choose a template make sure that it will convert to PDF
Before the authors begin to submit their chapters, explore HTML and ePUB ( to display the work as an addition to PDF)
Make sure that your margins and spacing are configured before you start editing
Be aware that pictures, quotes, and links might need adjustment at the editing phase
Be ready to encounter all possible errors, be patient
Check your links when exporting to PDF, not all of them transfer over. Luckily, you can add links to your pages on Adobe.
Fall 2019
When creating the template, be very specific in all formatting including captioning, headings, alignment (center, right, left), spacing after/before a paragraph, ensuring references page is APA format. Also whether all network activities, discussion questions, glossary etc. will be at the end of the chapter or at the end of the book.
At the beginning of the course, advise all classmates to answer Discussion questions formally with citations so that when authors begin chapter work, they can easily pull from what was previously written.
It is helpful to have someone is your group who is stronger in logistics and another is strong in technology so your are able to divide tasks up along the way that played to our strengths. At the same time we helped each other understand what each was doing.
Communicating often via phone, text and email. This is the key. Even when you think you have it straight we sometimes didn't.
One person answers all emails regarding tech questions from the classmates. Another answers those regarding logistics so you would not confuse the classmates. It is nice to have a go to person in your team. If one reads the email first, one could text another that there are student questions and one would be able to answer them right away.
Try to outline early (using the information you provided in the ETC 655 class) what the expectations are for the ebook and presentations and then send reminders. It is very important.
Try to make it clear and simple. Students will create the information for the chapter and the editors assemble it and edit it.
We wanted to try a different presentation format and a different ebook format but we decided to go with what everyone was used to using, BBCollaborate and Google sites. This seemed to work well and avoided a lot of confusion and training in other formats. We tried skydrive but I found it difficult to edit.
Each group was responsible for their chapter so kudos goes to them for putting each chapter together visually and information wise.
I, as an editor, take responsibility for doing the editing and writing the Intro and Conclusion. I stuck to only doing soft editing so students did not feel that I was changing their thoughts or words. I stuck to grammar and verb and noun agreements. I suggest it would be necessary to do a lot more editing.
Assembling the website, formatting it and turning it into a PDF is time consuming. Prepare it as early as possible.
Assign the task of building the website to the most appropriate member of the team. Build out the website early in the class and have it ready for populating the data after it is received at the end of the course. This will save you a lot of time at the conclusion of the course when you can most use it.
Choose one member to proofread all of the chapters before you begin to populate the website or build out the EBook. This will be the most time-consuming task of this project.
Have another person to proofread the content a second time. Sometimes you can miss things that another will catch.
Assign the task of building the Ebook and populating the website to single members of the team. Having too many people working simultaneous on the book and website can lead to a disjointed looking product.
Here is a detailed reflection from one of previous editor. The editor suggested many things based on the experiences. Read it. You can learn a lot from them.
Make sure editors read the detailed notes you have written for this project on lesson 7 shortly after they sign up. I didn’t until later on in the class. This would have saved a lot of time I spent imagining a new layout design.
Have a due date of a Friday instead of a Sunday. Writers dropped their copies on Sunday night, one did it past the deadline. Not having a weekend to work on editing could result in sloppy editing.
Maintain communication throughout the class. I first met Michelle face-to-face the day we met at Giant Coffee, the days before the last day of class. We had communicated so many times over text and through BB Collaborate when we did our training session, so it felt like I had known her longer. This open communication made editing a better experience, we could go to each other for questions.
In addition to discussing font with writers, make sure they all follow guidelines of spacing. There should only be one space after a punctuation mark.
In terms of reflections on the eBook process, I would say it was important to send out the information early but to expect more questions as the due date approaches. For mine, I offered the original format as a Google Slides, and at your suggestion also provided a Google Docs. I felt that this helped - though I should have explained which format I wanted it in between the two. I had some groups who wanted to do it in Slides and others in Docs, which was fine for me but presented some challenges in transferring between the two. Another suggestion I would have is to provide an example of what you want in terms of small formatting things like bulleting or titles to pages. Having to go through and change those for each can be difficult, so if the groups can all do it one way to start, it would help in the editing process.