0.4 Open textbook adoption  (Page 2/5)

Step 4: disseminate your open textbook to your students

Do-it-yourself

• Email the website address of the open textbook to your students.
• Download the open textbook as a file (e.g., Word, Open Office, PDF). Email the file to your enrolled students.
• Post the website address or document file to your students' course management system course site.

If the Word document file or PDF is too large to email or post, use a free online file storage or file sharing service.

• Box.net
• BT Digital Vault
• Openomy

Tour of Lulu Students can download and print the Word document file, PDF, or website contents.Campus Printshop Create a Word document file or PDF of the open textbook that you have selected. Open Office is another option.Email the file to your Campus Printshop per their specifications. Printing ServicesCreate a file (e.g., Word, Open Office, PDF) of the open textbook that you have selected. Email the file to a printing service such as exlibris per their specifications.

What are Open Textbooks?

Open textbooks "are textbooks that are freely available with nonrestrictive licenses. Covering a wide range of disciplines, open textbooks are available to download and print in various file formats from several web sites and OER repositories. Open textbooks can range from public domain books to existing textbooks to textbooks created specifically for OER. Open textbooks help solve the problems of the high cost of textbooks, book shortages, and access to textbooks as well as providing the capacity to better meet local teaching and learning needs" according to a Module created by Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME).

Five steps to adopting an open textbook for your course

Give your students an alternative to expensive textbooks by following these five steps.

Step One: List keywords based on course objectives or student learning outcomes.

Step Two:   Search for open content using the keywords.

Step Three:   Select or create appropriate open content.

Step Four: Organize open content into an open textbook.

Step Five:   Get necessary approvals and disseminate the open textbook to students.

Example

Health Course Textbook

A textbook commonly adopted for a Healthy Lifestyles or Health Education course is An Invitation to Health  by Hales. This 2007 textbook is 696 pages in length and has a list price of $108.95.  One open textbook alternative is selected content from MedlinePlus .  This content is free for downloading and printing.

An Invitation to Health Table of Contents	Medline PlusOpen Textbook Equivalent
Chapter 1: Your Invitation to Health	Health Literacy Evaluating Health Information
Chapter 2: Changing for Life	Healthy Living
Chapter 3: Psychological Health	Mental Health
Chapter 4: Personal Stress Management	Stress
Chapter 5: The Joy of Fitness	Exercise and Physical Fitness
Chapter 6: Personal Nutrition	Nutrition
Chapter 7: Taking Control of Your Weight	Weight Control
Chapter 8: Communicating and Relating	Personality Disorders
Chapter 9: Personal Sexuality	Sexual Health
Chapter 10: Reproductive Choices	Reproductive Health
Chapter 11: Avoiding Addictive Behaviors and Drug Abuse	Drug Abuse
Chapter 12: Alcohol Use, Misuse, and Abuse	Alcohol Consumption
Chapter 13: Tobacco Use, Misuse, and Abuse	Smoking
Chapter 14: Defending Yourself Against Infectious Diseases	Immunization Infectious Diseases
Chapter 15: Keeping Your Heart Healthy	Heart Disease Prevention
Chapter 16: Preventing Cancer and Other Illnesses	Cancer
Chapter 17: Health-Care Consumerism and Complementary/Alternative Medicine	Complementary and Alternative Medicine Health Fraud
Chapter 18: Healthy Aging and the Circle of Life	Seniors Health
Chapter 19: Staying Safe: Preventing Injury, Violence, and Victimization	Injuries Safety Domestic Violence
Chapter 20: Working toward a Healthy Environment	Environmental Health