Adapting OER

There are many reasons for adapting an existing open textbook or other OER. For example:

• You may want to remove sections that aren’t appropriate for your curriculum

• You may want to incorporate material you’ve written yourself to update the resource or to make it more inclusive, diverse and relevant to your context

• You may want to add local images, examples or case studies

• You may want to add exercises or other activities to make it more interactive

• You may want to replace commercially published textbooks that have expensive, unsustainable digital access models, thus ensuring that all your students have equitable digital access to course texts.

The adaptations may be minor, but could make the material completely relevant to your curriculum.

Points to consider 

• Can you find suitable OER that have appropriate licences to allow you to adapt? The Finding section of this toolkit will direct you to suitable sources.

• If you intend to add third party material  to your adaptation, what are the copyright or licensing implications? See Managing third-party copyright in open publications.

• Which licence will you apply to your adaptation?  This may  be informed by the licence applied to the material you are adapting. There's more information in the Licensing section of this toolkit.

• The Pressbooks Authoring and Editing platform is one tool that can be used to adapt existing OER and to create new material. The University of Sheffield has an institutional account, the Sheffield Pressbooks Network, and the University of Leeds has Open Books on the Pressbooks platform. 

• LibreTexts - The OER Remixer tool enables customised remixes from existing sources in LibreTexts. The Construction Guide has more details.  

• OER Commons Open Author can be used to customise and create.

Acknowledgements:

Lauri M. Aesoph. Adaption guide

BCcampus. Adapt (modify) an open texbook

Open Education Network. Modifying an open texbook: what you need to know

When you are deciding where to host your OER it is important to bear in mind what metrics and usage data you will be able to collect from the host site. Data can be valuable in demonstrating the value of your OER and can contribute to evidence for your career development and grant applications. 

Visit the Creating section of the toolkit to find guidance on how to track usage and impact of your OER.