The library can support you to create an open textbook. Contact your Teaching Liaison Librarian to get started.
You can write a textbook as a sole author, or collaborate with your colleagues at the university, or externally. You can even co-create a text with your students, like Charles Darwin University's co-authored text Cultural Knowledges and Work Integrated Learning, or the work of Dr Tai Peseta and the 21C Project at Western Sydney University to co-create curriculum.
To find out more, read the Rebus Guide to Publishing Open Textbooks (So Far).
Need resources? Check out the Library page on open-licensed and other free resources (images, video audio).
We recommend use of this workflow for University of Newcastle authors.
There are a number of open textbook platforms available:
The library has access to Pressbooks and can support you to publish here, via the CAUL OER Collective.
The low cost, ease of use and adaptability of open textbooks does not equate to low quality. Peer review is an important part of the open textbook publishing process and ensures a high quality textbook. Before creating your textbook, consider who may be appropriate to review your work.
The CAUL OER Collective workflow provides resources to support the peer review process, and the library can assist.
Check our Licensing and Copyright page for which kind of open licence will suit your content best and give you the protections you want, along with other considerations.
Using open licences such as Creative Commons licensing ensures that you retain your copyright. You grant permission to others to use your work, but you retain your rights to the work and can still be in charge of its distribution.
You have the right to decide how other people can use your work, and how your work should be attributed. Users of a derived work will see which elements have been developed by whom, and may choose to use the original rather than the derived version (Open Educational Resources mythbusting, Grodecka and Sliwowski 2014, p. 20)