Maxwell Nicholson\u2019s interest in open textbooks started as a student leader at the University of Victoria Students\u2019 Society.<\/p>\n
He ran on a platform of open textbooks, and won (when we spoke with him he was just ending his post as director of campaigns and community relations). His involvement in an open textbook was one way of fulfilling a campaign promise to bring free textbooks into use at the university.<\/p>\n
After the campaign, Nicholson met with about ten professors in exploratory meetings to find out about the barriers to adoption for open textbooks. These included Dr. Emma Hutchinson, who taught the ECON 103 course that Nicholson (and three of the other candidates) had been longtime lab instructors for.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not going to go anywhere if the professor\u2019s not onboard, so we were fortunate enough for Dr. Hutchinson to be really excited about it too,\u201d Nicholson says.<\/p>\n
Post-election, Nicholson\u2019s first step to operationalize the project was to apply for a $4,800 grant for the project from BC Campus, which served as a granting agency for open textbook projects that could prove a demand. Despite a few bumps along the way, the funds came through for the project.<\/p>\n
This open textbook project was different in that rather than being primarily the work of an instructor with funding to write it or a class-assigned project for students, the grant funded lab instructors to do the heavy lifting of compiling the textbook. The professor reviewed it and made the changes they thought necessary from there. This was doable since Nicholson had direct experience with how the instructor taught the class.<\/p>\n
Nicholson had assisted the microeconomics class three times and the macroeconomics course once. \u201cI\u2019ve been fortunate to be on the pedagogy side to some extent, obviously nothing compared to professors, but when writing the textbook, that was really really crucial for me to have that lens when I was contributing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The textbook started as an adaptation of Timothy Taylor\u2019s open textbook, Principles of Microeconomics,[footnote]Timothy Taylor, Principles of Microeconomics <\/em>(Houston, OpenStax: 2014), https:\/\/openstax.org\/details\/books\/principles-microeconomics.[\/footnote]<\/a> from OpenStax. But in the process of adapting the text, they found there were a lot of components that had to be written.<\/p>\n Ultimately, the textbook comprised around 30 percent material that came from Timothy Taylor\u2019s book and 70 percent new content the lab instructors developed from their notes and the professor\u2019s slide decks.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reason this project was most appealing is because she had her slides over here which taught what she wanted [students] to know, and then the publisher\u2019s textbook was completely different,\u201d NIcholson says. \u201cSo from the start our goal was really to align those two things.\u201d<\/p>\n Nicholson says the lab instructors thought a lot about how students were going to consume the material, and what components of the course the instructor really wanted to stress.<\/p>\n They hoped to save students the cost of buying a textbook they didn\u2019t really use.<\/p>\n The book was structured into eight topics, then the lab instructors divided them and did the heavy lifting to compile the chapters. Dr. Hutchinson edited each of the chapters to make sure everything was accurate, thorough and clear.<\/p>\n The process, Nicholson says, helped \u201cremove the biggest barrier for professors--the magnitude of work that goes into redesigning a textbook.\u201d<\/p>\n Nicholson says he thinks large first-year courses such as ECON 103 (which has 800 students per year) make the best candidates for OER--and are also the most likely courses to have lab instructors that can be leveraged to compile the content. (He recognizes that most professors probably don\u2019t want to spend their nights and weekends becoming book publishers.)<\/p>\n \u201cWhat [professors] can do if they know that they\u2019re going to do this project, is take one of their most christened lab instructors, get access to grant funding and pay the lab instructor to work on the textbook,\u201d Nicholson says. \u201cThen they can be confident that it\u2019s someone who not only knows the course, but knows the course as the professor teaches it.\u201d<\/p>\n For his part, Nicholson says he learned a lot from the project, including understanding the work that goes into designing a course, and gaining a greater appreciation for good textbooks and discernment of those that aren\u2019t well-matched for the subject. Creating OER offers great opportunities to customize a textbook to a course, he says, observing that it must be challenging for traditional publishers to create one-size-fits-all content for teachers, who may teach subjects very differently.<\/p>\n \u201cI would hope they\u2019re doing a lot of getting students to read this book and connect on it,\u201d he says. \u201cA lot of times it feels like they don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n Nicholson, who is studying business and economics, says, \u201cIf you\u2019re trying to create a product, you\u2019re always supposed to ask your end user \u2018what do you think?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n So even if you don\u2019t want to have students write a textbook for your class, he says, you should have some of your top students read it and provide feedback.<\/p>\n Otherwise, he says, students will either buy the textbook and not use it, or tell future students not to buy it.<\/p>\n \u201cWith a publisher\u2019s resource, if it\u2019s not useful, the students are going to stop buying it,\u201d Nicholson says.<\/p>\n Of course, some might object to students having as much involvement in a textbook\u2019s writing as Nicholson and his fellow lab instructors experienced, but Nicholson says that after the instructors create the chapters, the professor is going to change and edit things, and ensure the quality meets their standard.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re a respected faculty and you have the experience teaching and you\u2019ve put that stamp of approval, I\u2019m really confident that the resource is going to be [Dr. Hutchinson\u2019s] resource. It\u2019s not just some resource that was written by students.\u201d<\/p>\n For students involved in such projects, he encourages them to appreciate the potential impact they might have through their involvement.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re involved in this kind of project, you\u2019re going to be on the back end of the course design, and you\u2019re able to take all the components that you thought were really bad about other textbooks and avoid those and leave all the really good elements,\u201d Nicholson says.<\/p>\n Students working on an open textbook for a class should realize the impact they\u2019ll have on future students who take that class--whether it\u2019s the only survey course they ever take on the subject, or the foundation of many in their majors. Plus, they\u2019re participating in an innovative movement in education.<\/p>\n Even for those who may not participate on an open textbook project, Nicholson says they can play a role in the movement as advocates, speaking with professors and outlining the benefits of OER, telling them when their book is expensive and there\u2019s an alternative open textbook in use by a peer institution.<\/p>\n \u201cCreating the buzz about [open textbooks]--students can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n For Faculty:<\/p>\n For Students:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n","rendered":" Maxwell Nicholson\u2019s interest in open textbooks started as a student leader at the University of Victoria Students\u2019 Society.<\/p>\n He ran on a platform of open textbooks, and won (when we spoke with him he was just ending his post as director of campaigns and community relations). His involvement in an open textbook was one way of fulfilling a campaign promise to bring free textbooks into use at the university.<\/p>\n After the campaign, Nicholson met with about ten professors in exploratory meetings to find out about the barriers to adoption for open textbooks. These included Dr. Emma Hutchinson, who taught the ECON 103 course that Nicholson (and three of the other candidates) had been longtime lab instructors for.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not going to go anywhere if the professor\u2019s not onboard, so we were fortunate enough for Dr. Hutchinson to be really excited about it too,\u201d Nicholson says.<\/p>\n Post-election, Nicholson\u2019s first step to operationalize the project was to apply for a $4,800 grant for the project from BC Campus, which served as a granting agency for open textbook projects that could prove a demand. Despite a few bumps along the way, the funds came through for the project.<\/p>\n This open textbook project was different in that rather than being primarily the work of an instructor with funding to write it or a class-assigned project for students, the grant funded lab instructors to do the heavy lifting of compiling the textbook. The professor reviewed it and made the changes they thought necessary from there. This was doable since Nicholson had direct experience with how the instructor taught the class.<\/p>\n Nicholson had assisted the microeconomics class three times and the macroeconomics course once. \u201cI\u2019ve been fortunate to be on the pedagogy side to some extent, obviously nothing compared to professors, but when writing the textbook, that was really really crucial for me to have that lens when I was contributing.\u201d<\/p>\n The textbook started as an adaptation of Timothy Taylor\u2019s open textbook, Principles of Microeconomics,[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/a> from OpenStax. But in the process of adapting the text, they found there were a lot of components that had to be written.<\/p>\n Ultimately, the textbook comprised around 30 percent material that came from Timothy Taylor\u2019s book and 70 percent new content the lab instructors developed from their notes and the professor\u2019s slide decks.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reason this project was most appealing is because she had her slides over here which taught what she wanted [students] to know, and then the publisher\u2019s textbook was completely different,\u201d NIcholson says. \u201cSo from the start our goal was really to align those two things.\u201d<\/p>\n Nicholson says the lab instructors thought a lot about how students were going to consume the material, and what components of the course the instructor really wanted to stress.<\/p>\n They hoped to save students the cost of buying a textbook they didn\u2019t really use.<\/p>\n The book was structured into eight topics, then the lab instructors divided them and did the heavy lifting to compile the chapters. Dr. Hutchinson edited each of the chapters to make sure everything was accurate, thorough and clear.<\/p>\n The process, Nicholson says, helped \u201cremove the biggest barrier for professors–the magnitude of work that goes into redesigning a textbook.\u201d<\/p>\n Nicholson says he thinks large first-year courses such as ECON 103 (which has 800 students per year) make the best candidates for OER–and are also the most likely courses to have lab instructors that can be leveraged to compile the content. (He recognizes that most professors probably don\u2019t want to spend their nights and weekends becoming book publishers.)<\/p>\n \u201cWhat [professors] can do if they know that they\u2019re going to do this project, is take one of their most christened lab instructors, get access to grant funding and pay the lab instructor to work on the textbook,\u201d Nicholson says. \u201cThen they can be confident that it\u2019s someone who not only knows the course, but knows the course as the professor teaches it.\u201d<\/p>\n For his part, Nicholson says he learned a lot from the project, including understanding the work that goes into designing a course, and gaining a greater appreciation for good textbooks and discernment of those that aren\u2019t well-matched for the subject. Creating OER offers great opportunities to customize a textbook to a course, he says, observing that it must be challenging for traditional publishers to create one-size-fits-all content for teachers, who may teach subjects very differently.<\/p>\n \u201cI would hope they\u2019re doing a lot of getting students to read this book and connect on it,\u201d he says. \u201cA lot of times it feels like they don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n Nicholson, who is studying business and economics, says, \u201cIf you\u2019re trying to create a product, you\u2019re always supposed to ask your end user \u2018what do you think?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n So even if you don\u2019t want to have students write a textbook for your class, he says, you should have some of your top students read it and provide feedback.<\/p>\n Otherwise, he says, students will either buy the textbook and not use it, or tell future students not to buy it.<\/p>\n \u201cWith a publisher\u2019s resource, if it\u2019s not useful, the students are going to stop buying it,\u201d Nicholson says.<\/p>\n Of course, some might object to students having as much involvement in a textbook\u2019s writing as Nicholson and his fellow lab instructors experienced, but Nicholson says that after the instructors create the chapters, the professor is going to change and edit things, and ensure the quality meets their standard.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re a respected faculty and you have the experience teaching and you\u2019ve put that stamp of approval, I\u2019m really confident that the resource is going to be [Dr. Hutchinson\u2019s] resource. It\u2019s not just some resource that was written by students.\u201d<\/p>\n For students involved in such projects, he encourages them to appreciate the potential impact they might have through their involvement.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re involved in this kind of project, you\u2019re going to be on the back end of the course design, and you\u2019re able to take all the components that you thought were really bad about other textbooks and avoid those and leave all the really good elements,\u201d Nicholson says.<\/p>\n Students working on an open textbook for a class should realize the impact they\u2019ll have on future students who take that class–whether it\u2019s the only survey course they ever take on the subject, or the foundation of many in their majors. Plus, they\u2019re participating in an innovative movement in education.<\/p>\n Even for those who may not participate on an open textbook project, Nicholson says they can play a role in the movement as advocates, speaking with professors and outlining the benefits of OER, telling them when their book is expensive and there\u2019s an alternative open textbook in use by a peer institution.<\/p>\n \u201cCreating the buzz about [open textbooks]–students can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n For Faculty:<\/p>\n For Students:<\/p>\n <\/p>\nKey Takeaways<\/h3>\n
\n
\n
Key Takeaways<\/h3>\n
\n
\n