Open textbooks are academic textbooks that are published with an open copyright licence or are available in the public domain. They are often free at the point of use, although there are still costs associated with developing and making them available to others. Open textbooks are authored by scholars and experts and contain high quality content covering a range of subject disciplines and levels of study.
Open licences, such as Creative Commons licences, allow the use and sharing of these resources with attribution. In some cases, the licensing also allows for the remixing or modification of the open textbook to create new curated resources, which is one of the most exciting features of open textbooks. For example, the contents of open textbooks can be revised and repurposed, so they are tailored to a specific cohort, environment or context. An open textbook might also be formed by a collection of chapters drawn from several other open textbooks, with modification of the content.
Open textbooks are typically published digitally, in a variety of accessible formats. They are created using online publishing platforms that enable the agile creation of textbooks, separate from commercial publisher processes. However, they can also be made available in print. Some open textbooks are accompanied by additional learning resources, including instructor materials, or have activities embedded in the book.
Because of their digital publishing process, open textbooks can be quickly updated and revised. Authors might invite peer review of open textbooks both during the writing and creation of the resource, and at the end of the process. Some open textbook platforms such as the Open Textbook Library encourage published reviews of the textbooks that are made visible on the site. When issues are identified these texts can be improved and republished quickly. Open textbooks should be evaluated using the same criteria as any academic text, reviewing authorship, content and appropriateness of the text.
Open textbooks are part of the wider ecosystem of Open Educational Resources (OER) - learning and teaching materials made freely available in a variety of formats or mediums. OER include materials such as course materials, ancillary learning resources and media. Open textbooks differ from open access books, which are usually produced and made available for free by a commercial publisher or organisational press. Open access texts tend to be monographs, rather than academic textbooks. While they can be used on reading lists and in teaching, the licence or permissions on open access books should be checked before adoption, as there may be restrictions on remixing and adapting, and copyright is sometimes retained by the publisher.
Open textbooks offer a variety of benefits for both the learner, the library, the educator and the institution. At core the opportunity to use, modify, remix and publish open textbooks means they can be effective in supporting inclusive and accessible learning environments.
Open textbooks can be read online by anyone and downloaded in a variety of digital formats. They are most often available as a PDF, but some textbooks also include EPUB, HTML or XML file options. This means that the whole text and the individual chapters can be accessed offline, or read by screen assistive technologies, overcoming the barriers that many commercial etextbooks present with limited download and access options. They are also designed as online books. Many existing publisher ebooks simply recreate the print copy without considering how they might meet accessibility requirements.
Open textbooks are available at low or no cost to the learner. This allows everyone to access the reading, whether they are enrolled at an institution or not, without worrying about costs or licensing restrictions. This has benefits for people considering a course who want to sample the reading materials, or just those who have an interest in learning about a subject.
In some cases, open textbooks can be revised and modified. This can allow the inclusion of more relevant and diverse examples in the learning materials. It can also lead to open pedagogy opportunities, where students can contribute to the development of a text.
Including an accessible, high-quality open textbook in the reading materials can help to create a more inclusive learning environment, allowing students to participate and engage with the learning materials with no access or cost barriers.
Use of open textbooks in the classroom can have an impact on student attainment. Studies by Farrow et al. (2015) of the Open University and Colvard et al. (2018) from the University of Georgia indicate that the introduction of open textbooks can improve academic outcomes.
Web-based open publishing platforms enable the agile creation of new and innovative content outside of the traditional publishing routes.
Modification of open textbooks allows the inclusion of a more diverse set of voices and perspectives in the learning materials, challenging commercial textbook publishing practices and offering opportunities to decolonise the curriculum.
Remixing open textbooks allows for the creation of curated and tailored teaching materials.
Including an open textbook in reading lists and developing or modifying a text, can demonstrate engagement with promotion criteria.
Open textbooks offer an opportunity for libraries or learning resources teams to overcome issues traditional eBooks present. Learning materials can be added to reading lists and accessed by large cohorts, commuter and off-campus students, and those with additional learning needs.
The option to include scholarly, high-quality texts in reading lists at an affordable price can help with library budgeting.
Advocacy and leadership in the adoption, policy and creation of open textbooks, and open educational resources more generally, allow library, learning and digital education services to play a central role in contributing to the work of the institution.
Library, learning and digital education services may find there is scope to take an active part in open publishing guidance and processes.
The adoption of open textbooks aligns with institutional strategies and values aspiring to create learning environments that are equitable, accessible and inclusive.
They offer an alternative route to allow authorship and publication of texts outside traditional publishing cycles.
Use of open textbooks can demonstrate commitment to UN Sustainable Development Goals, and the Agenda for Sustainable Development, specifically SDG4, which aims to 'Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all'.
Open textbooks can be sourced online via the variety of repositories and directories that have been developed by publishers and the OER community.
Because the Open Textbooks movement has grown and matured in the North American education sector, much of the content reflects the North American curriculum and language. This might be a consideration for certain subjects such as health and social sciences, social work, law, and anything relating to governance and politics.
There are more directories and online libraries of OER than is possible to list here, but if we use a tight definition of Open Textbooks designed for Higher Education, these five are a useful place to start:
Run by the Open Education Network and hosted by the University of Minnesota, the Open Textbook Library is easy to navigate and covers a wide range of subject disciplines. Content is not peer-reviewed in the traditional sense, but each title is accompanied by reviews from academics, and all titles (currently over 1600) must be in existing use across more than one institution (or be affiliated with an educational or professional organisation) to qualify for inclusion.
More than 7,500 e-books in the physical, health, life and social sciences, engineering and technology, browsable by discipline. All content is peer-reviewed and published under Creative Commons licences.
B.C. Campus in Canada offers this collection of Open Educational Resources (OER) that can be used in the classroom, in an institutional learning management system, or on other teaching and learning platforms. All materials are openly licensed, and customisable. The collection includes courses and textbooks.
Offering several hundred high-quality, curated open textbooks, LibreText Commons brings together nine different collections including OpenStax. Most academic disciplines are covered in an easy, accessible interface, although the North American bias is evident throughout. Chapters are available in multiple formats, and some are accompanied by instructor resources.
A discovery tool for over 90,000 curated and peer-reviewed open resources, the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT) is a mature cross-disciplinary collection. Open textbooks sit alongside case studies and multimedia, as well as course materials that rely on access to commercial textbooks. Search results are easy to filter by resource type, discipline, and audience.
Some other sources to look for open textbooks and other OER can be found in the Brunel Open Educational Resource LibGuide.
There will invariably be some overlap in search results from the different discovery tools, so the choice of where to look comes down to which interface works best for you.
Open textbooks should be evaluated in the same way as any other material being considered for inclusion in students' learning resources. However, there are some specific areas that might also be useful to note when looking at this type of material.
Attribution and licensing – It is important to consider the licence that the open textbook is shared with. Most open textbooks will be shared with a licence that allows a text to be used, shared and accessed in the learning environment if the original creator is acknowledged and the licence is made visible. If you are considering remixing or adapting an open textbook check whether the licence allows for this type of use.
Currency – As with any textbook, new editions or revisions of the book will be published, so it is important to check for a clear date of publication or update. A benefit of open textbook publishing is that revisions can happen quickly to help keep them accurate and up to date. However, depending on the nature of the material, the original content might have been written at an earlier date and re-mixed and revised for a new work, so it is useful to look at whether there is any indication of whether the content is original or attributed to another earlier publication. Dates of publication, remixing and updates should be noted in the book description information or About section.
Accessibility – An advantage of open textbooks is that they are produced in a variety of accessible digital formats, but their accessibility should still be reviewed. Some open textbooks will detail the accessibility features in the introduction to the book to help users evaluate the text. One evaluation of digital accessibility is to check whether the text meets WCAG 2.2 Guidelines: How to Meet WCAG (Quickref Reference)
Content - Open textbooks are written in a variety of subject areas and potential texts should be reviewed for alignment to the content of the module or the learning. It is possible to use more than one open textbook, or a selection of chapters or open educational resources to ensure the relevant level of coverage.
Reading level – Open materials are created for learners at all levels of education, from school to post tertiary research, as well as for educators and other professionals. The language and contents should be checked to make sure the text is not too basic or complex for the audience.
Authorship – Most open textbooks are published by educational institutions or initiatives and written by academic experts. However, open textbooks can include many voices and contributions. Often students are invited to contribute to texts as part of coursework or other groups or perspectives are included to create a more diverse and inclusive publication. This is a strength of open educational resources, but it can mean that authors have a variety of expertise.
Modification and adaptation – Many open textbooks are revised and tailored versions of other works. This can involve localisation that might not have application for other contexts. For example, an institution might refer to particular departments or student cohorts in their open textbooks. It is also the case that an open textbook might be drawn from several sources so that the content is not consistent across each section.
Geography and context – Like any source, open textbooks may have been written for a specific territory. At the moment, there is an active community of authors developing texts in North America with fewer publications reflecting UK terminologies and contexts. Depending on the discipline, open textbooks might be evaluated to check whether the terms, spellings, measurements and notation are meaningful for the cohort.
Additional resources – Some open textbooks have additional learning activities embedded in the text, or extra resources for instructors and students hosted alongside the materials.
To help with evaluation, one additional resource to consult are academic reviews on the Open Textbook Library. This platform has many in-depth academic evaluations which detail the Comprehensiveness, Content Accuracy, Relevance, Clarity, Consistency, Organisation etc. of the text.
There are also several rubrics available online to help with the assessment of OER.
Open licences allow the use and sharing of resources with attribution. This type of licence means that the user can retain a copy for their own use, including downloading the whole text of a book. It also means these texts can be shared in teaching and accessed by all learners. In some cases, the licensing also allows for the revision or adaptation of material to create new curated resources.
Creative Commons licences are an example of open licences which work within the copyright legal framework. They are not a replacement for, or an alternative to, copyright. At their foundation, Creative Commons licences provide the fundamental connection between the creator and their creation, ensuring that copyright is retained and that creators get correct attribution for their work. They also provide users of copyright material clear and unambiguous permissions. Find out more about licensing, attribution and copyright in the context of OER from the White Rose Libraries OER Toolkit.
Examples of standard attribution statements, following the Creative Commons’ recommended practice:
OER toolkit © 2022 by The University of Leeds, The University of Sheffield and The University of York is licensed under Attribution 4.0 International.
This work, 'What are OER?’ © 2024 by Brunel University of London is a derivative of the OE Benefits - ENOEL slides by the European Network of Open Education Librarians and is used under Attribution 4.0 International.
There are many other types of open licence available that are more suited to other examples of open material, such as open source software, than Creative Commons. The choosealicense site provides a list of options.
It can be a daunting experience and overwhelming as you start to consider how to raise awareness of the benefits and necessity of OER within an institution. Here we provide some suggestions which have been used in UK and Irish institutions and we welcome other ideas from the community. The items are a mix of operational and strategic steps and, in our experience, doing some of both is effective.
Create a LibGuide or a web page so that when you start talking about OER you have institutional information to signpost to. The content can be limited at first but keep it under review and add to it as your own knowledge grows.
Conduct a survey with your academic staff to assess current awareness and usage of OER. View this as a baseline survey which you could potentially re-run in 2 or 3 years’ time to see if awareness and usage has increased. Here are some suggested questions you could start with and modify OER survey question bank.
Using the responses from the survey, identify individuals within your institution who are already using OER or are enthusiastic about learning more. Alternatively, go along to departmental meetings and / or meet with individuals with an interest in open initiatives. These are potential ‘champions’ who could be a source of peer support and form the basis of a local OER network. Arrange to meet them as a group to discuss their views.
Using responses from the survey, identify individuals who already share material openly. Consider asking them if you could use their experience to create text or video case studies to add to your web pages.
Run a workshop or series of workshops around OER and invite academic colleagues and others such as learning technologists and curriculum developers along (you may have collected contact details from survey respondents and they would be a good place to start). The OEN UK & Ireland Community of Practice runs some ‘train the trainer’ events to support you.
Consider partnering with other HEIs in your local area to provide support and run in-person workshops. Running joint workshops means you have a bigger pool of people from which to draw possible participants
Where you know of OER relevant to your curriculum contact the appropriate module lead to ask if you can add them to the reading list or add them to the VLE.
Can you get consideration for OER included in the paperwork and/or guidance for academics when they are creating new degree programmes or modules? Many institutions are operating within tight financial constraints and it is useful to raise the profile of OER amongst developers at the point when they are considering which resources they need to support their students. It’s more difficult after this point and you may not get the opportunity to change a course textbook for another 3 to 5 years.
Look at the criteria for academic promotion. Can you embed adoption, adaptation or creation of OER as criteria for teachers’ promotion, demonstrating academic citizenship, improving teaching practice or embracing change and innovation?
Develop an institutional OER policy or statement which encourages the use and creation of OER. Examples include the University of the Highlands and Islands, the University of Edinburgh, the Open University, the University of Sheffield (under ‘intellectual property’) and the University of Essex.
Involvement in using and creating OER is an opportunity for students to learn about scholarly publishing, copyright and licensing. Students, with guidance, can help identify and evaluate potential OER for their programme which offers the potential to include more diverse voices in library content. The library could consider short paid internships to undertake the work in collaboration with programme leads.
Some ideas for creators to involve students in OER development follow below. Unlike many staff who are University employees, a student’s intellectual property is their own. Co-creating OER can help them to learn about their rights as creators, to understand the options for sharing their work, and to provide informed consent.
Before OER is shared widely, creators could ask students to read or trial any content to check it is understandable, to identify any gaps in the content, and to test interactive elements
Students could contribute diagrams or illustrations, or design a cover / front page
As part of their programme students could play a bigger role in developing content for the OER. Examples include Teaching with Tricontinental, Difference, Power, and Discrimination in Film and Media: Student Essays and Environmental ScienceBites.
Increased student engagement in co-creation requires clear guidance for academic staff and for students regarding intellectual property and their rights as creators. Staff should consider how and what consent from students is necessary in advance of the work in a way that enables students to fully understand and engage in the process of publishing.
We encourage you to share your ideas for existing support materials that can be linked above, or for additional topics to include in this section.