Welcome
We warmly welcome you to the Rebus Community Textbook Success Program designed to support you in your equity-centred work to create inclusive learning experiences for your students. The Textbook Success Program is a professional development program that equips faculty, librarians, administrators, and managers with the tools they need to make great OER. The program is one year long and comprises two phases:
Phase 1 Meetings (August 22 - November 14)
- WHEN: Mondays 3:00-4:30 pm (ET) on Zoom (see your calendar invitations for link)
- WHO: Facilitator: Apurva Ashok (@apurva)
- WHAT: 12 weekly themed sessions with your cohort to give you an overview of the open publishing process, and plan out the steps for your independent practical work in Phase 2.
Phase 2 Meetings (end of November/ beginning December 2022 - end of August 2023)
- WHEN: Note that the meeting times for the 9 monthly meetings in PHASE 2 will be determined based on your input towards the end of PHASE 1.
- WHO: Facilitator: Apurva Ashok (@apurva)
- WHAT: Hands-on stage where you and your team work on your OER projects, with a mix of group check-ins with your cohort and 1:1 support sessions with your facilitator. We will alternate between a monthly cohort meeting and an individual support check-in with your team and your facilitator.
You are required to attend all sessions, to the best of your ability. In case of absences, you must ensure that at least 1 member of your project team participates to update you and the cohort on your group’s progress. Review the program Memorandum of Understanding prior to participation.
Significant Learning Objectives
- Get to know Rebus’ collaborative open publishing approach with open education peers in a supportive learning environment.
- Connect and contribute to the OER community (eg. process of being in TSP, learning and OER that comes out of it, relationships).
- Reflect on your current pedagogical practices with the goal of creating your OER with learning experiences that are accessible, equitable, and inclusive.
- Create an efficient workflow and apply best practices that help your project progress in due time, with guidance from your Rebus facilitator and other cohort members.
- Gain confidence using open approaches and tools to advance your project and grow its user community.
- Build and strengthen institutional capacity for current and future open publishing projects.
- Recognize and grow your open education leadership skills.
Approaches and Methods
We designed the TSP to help examine and unlearn individual, institutional, and societal maladaptive assumptions and conventions that block designing learning for human diversity, equity, and global complexity. Our hope is that your engagement in the Textbook Success Program will allow you to transform first as individuals, and secondly as educators in ways unique to your professional contexts.
Rebus strives to build a learning community in the program where both participants and facilitators learn actively from each other as they draw on their own knowledge sources and critically reflect on individual, institutional, and societal practices in higher education to facilitate positive change. To move forward we will have to ask ourselves how we practice and why. Some of this will be uncomfortable but this is critical and necessary work to make learning truly inclusive, which is what we believe you are all here to do with your OER projects and in your roles in the higher education system. Please navigate through the program (materials, structure, conversations), with an openness and willingness for something new! This approach is critical to achieving the learning outcomes described earlier.
Facilitator
All TSP cohorts are led by an enthusiastic program alum. Your cohort facilitator, Apurva Ashok (@apurva) leads Open Education initiatives at The Rebus Foundation, primarily through the Rebus Community. She helps educational institutions build human capacity in OER publishing through professional development offerings such as the Textbook Success Program. Apurva studied literature and marketing at McGill University and completed the Master of Publishing program at Simon Fraser University. Her experience ranges across academic publishing, media, social justice, and volunteerism. In 2020, Apurva received an Open Education Award for Excellence from Open Education Global in recognition of her contributions to the field. She strongly believes in translating knowledge among communities and regions, and in the value of greater critical thinking for all.
Having successfully facilitated 6 TSP cohorts to date, Apurva looks forward to supporting your cohort and the committed equitable work being done by all of you.
Tools and Resources
Program Technology
The Textbook Success Program is being facilitated using four different technological tools, the use of which is further detailed below:
Rebus Community Forum: This is your hub for all asynchronous cohort communication (including Q+A, team discussions, TSP session materials, summaries, surveys, etc.)
- You can sign up any time, but best do it prior to course start.
- Watch the introductory video [2 min] and navigation tutorial [3 min] to get started.
- Bookmark your July 2022 M-1 Cohort forum space in your preferred browser for quick access to the course syllabus and the weekly threads.
- Your facilitator will practice the use of the tool during the first 2 sessions.
- Please post all TSP-related comments, ideas, and questions to the forum rather than emailing your facilitator. Tag the people involved for in-time responses.
TSP Curriculum Hub: This is a Google space where all session materials are compiled (i.e slides, handouts, templates). Organisation is in folders by session.
- You can access the CC BY licensed materials anytime.
- Bookmark the hub in your browser for quick access.
- Materials will be reshared in a timely manner on the Rebus Community forum (above) throughout the program.
Zoom: This is the tool we are using for our live video sessions. You will find the Zoom links in your calendar once you accept the invitations from Rebus.
- If you have never used Zoom, you will need to download the software to participate.
- We greatly appreciate it if you turn on your camera whenever possible as this will enhance the session experience for everybody in the room. We also understand that video is not always an option.
- We invite you to engage with your cohort via the chat function whenever you want to share your thoughts and questions. Please respond kindly to other people’s contributions.
Additional Resources
Schedule
Phase 1: Plan your Project
- Introductions on 22 August 2022
We’ll start off with group introductions and learn about each project, in an effort to build a network of support and awareness. We’ll also share the Rebus approach to OER: how collaboration makes OER stronger, improves and diversifies content, builds adoption vectors, and increases community buy-in. We’ll discuss why considerations like accessibility, communications, formatting should be made early on. Finally, we’ll gather your goals and expectations for Phase 1.
- Project Scoping on 29 August 2022
Defining your project scope and expectations is critical to a successful project. You will learn what elements to consider before you start to scope your own project and write an initial summary to help communicate the vision for your project to team members, other collaborators and the future users of your resource. You will set up a homepage, where you can communicate your project progress throughout the year in the TSP program and afterwards.
- Storytelling and Communications on 12 September 2022
Communications strategy must be more than an afterthought. Your method of talking about your project is an integral element of building a successful OER project. Sharing the project’s story helps praise the work behind your resource(s), highlight its/ their use, and thus grow the book’s community to build long-term sustainability and success.
- Growing and Managing Teams on 19 September 2022
In this session we cover various roles and responsibilities, tasks and workload, types of teams, and how to find people to help your project succeed. We highlight the ways strong leaders plan tasks, motivate the team, and keep the project on track. Finally, we discuss ways to manage teams, while striking a balance between available time and the project’s requirements.
SLIGHT CHANGE TO DELIVERY ROUTINE FROM NOW ON
NOTE that in response to cohort feedback, you agreed that the sessions will be slightly restructured to make more room for discussion. You agreed to prepare for upcoming sessions by reading the initial 5 slides in the respective slide decks for each week and writing a brief project update (1 person per team) in response to weekly facilitator posts.
See screenshot for example post below. If you want the text in the image read out via screen reader software, access the forum post directly here.
- Team check-in with your facilitator on 26 September 2022
This stage of the program will give you an opportunity for you and your team to meet 1:1 with your facilitator, and address any specific questions, challenges, or issues that have come up. It also offers your facilitator the chance to learn more about your work, and use this insight to tailor support in upcoming sessions.
- Accessibility and Inclusive Design on 03 October 2022
Thinking about accessibility and inclusive design up front yields resources that can be used by all students from the moment of release. By integrating these considerations into your project from the beginning you can reduce remediation work post-release.
- Content Creation on 24 October 2022
Content is one of the most anticipated parts of OER creation. In this session we discuss how to produce strong content that is optimal for learners and consistent across the OER project, while also keeping in mind considerations such as target audiences, diversity, accessibility, downstream uses like remixing, localizing, etc.
- Authoring and Editing Logistics on 31 October 2022
Content creation spans a wide range of activities and forms. This session encourages you to think outside of the box - what would be helpful for fellow educators to make full use of the resource you are creating? In this session we also explore editing, which is a critical phase of OER creation as it ensures the usability and readability of the text. We discuss how it plays out throughout the creation process in different ways, and how it helps your project become a cohesive resource.
- Review and Feedback on 07 November 2022
A critical piece of successful OER is getting feedback and review early on. In this session we talk about why peer review is important, how to get it done, and other methods to receive comments and critique on your project.
- Formatting and Release Preparation on 14 November 2022
Once your book’s content has been written, edited, and reviewed, you need to get it into formats to be shared in the world. We’ll talk about different approaches to formatting and layout, (using Pressbooks and other tools) and how to prepare for the book’s big release.
- Post-release and Adoptions on 21 or 28 November 2022 (depending on off days in your university)
The book is out there. Now what? We’ll discuss adoptions, improvements, maintenance, and ways to expand your book so that it and the community around it live on.
- Curriculum Wrap-Up on 05 December 2022
In the final session for Phase 1, we look back on all the topics covered and reflect on the progress you have made. We discuss your plans for Phase 2 and highlight the ways in which you can continue to support and get support from your fellow cohort members.
Phase 2: Practical Application
Creating high-quality, accessible, representative, and valuable open resources takes time. We want to make sure that you have the support you need from this learning community for a full year. During Phase 2, you’ll get a chance to talk about your project progress and request guidance from your facilitator and other cohort members.
In Phase 2 of the program you will meet monthly (alternating between 60 min cohort meetings and 20 min 1:1 meetings with your facilitator) for a total of 9 months. You will move through the publishing cycle at different paces, based on your team resources and goals. Throughout this phase, your cohort facilitator will reference useful materials and templates from Phase 1 to guide and support you in your project work.
Goals:
To keep you progressing smoothly and hold you accountable, you will need to:
- Create an anticipated timeline for your project that details all steps, responsibilities, and tasks to be completed by your team,
- Set small goals in between the monthly meetings,
- Plan the steps necessary to reach those goals and move your project forward,
- Articulate the required support and/or anticipated challenges,
- Troubleshoot using the expertise and support in your team, your TSP cohort, and/or institution,
- Share your progress with the cohort and facilitator in the Rebus Community forum prior to sessions to receive more personalised feedback, input, or support,
- Offer advice and share experiences with other teams in your cohort,
- Frequently adjust the pace and workload in accordance with your greater project timeline,
- Provide feedback on the TSP (program, curriculum, facilitation) to help enhance your experience when necessary.
The schedule for Phase 2 will look like this:
- Group check-in: 5 December 2022 , 2:30-4:00pm ET
- Monthly 1:1 with your facilitator: 23 January 2022 , 2:30-4:00pm ET
- Group check-in: 27 February 2022 , 2:30-4:00pm ET
- Monthly 1:1 with your facilitator: 27 March 2023, 2:30-4:00pm ET
- Group check-in: 24 April 2023, 2:30-4:00pm ET
- Monthly 1:1 with your facilitator: 22 May 2023, 2:30-4:00pm ET
- Group check-in: 26 June 2023, 2:30-4:00pm ET
- Monthly 1:1 with your facilitator: 24 July 2023, 2:30-4:00pm ET
- Group check-in: 28 August 2023, 2:30-4:00pm ET (final meeting for the course)
Contact
We encourage transparency in what we do, so that everyone, including those outside the program, are aware of the work we are doing and can benefit from the knowledge shared. All communications will take place in the cohort forum discussion space. However, in the event of extraordinary circumstances, participants can contact Apurva Ashok (@apurva) privately via direct message on the Rebus Community forum.
