Last month, we announced the June 2022 Cohort of the Textbook Success Program, featuring teams from the University of Houston and the University of Maryland. Facilitated by TSP alum Bryan McGeary, here is an overview of the teams and their 7 OER projects:

1. Be a Tech Advanced Cultural Learner (University of Houston: Melody Li, Fang Fang, Ariana Santiago, Sammy Hwang) aims to serve a large student body in a variety of humanities cultural classes and will guide students to use tools for effective learning and get involved with cultural aspects, such as cuisine, music, and city development.
2. With a goal of creating a resource that is fun and fluid, Improvisions 1 (University of Houston: Viola Green, Ariana Santiago) is an introductory French language OER geared towards University of Houston students with no background in French. The first textbook in the series, Improvisations 1 will provide students ample opportunity to practice the French language through interactive activities.
3. Instructional Design for Human Resource Development (University of Houston: LaTasha Bennett, Maura Pereira-Leon, Ariana Santiago) is being designed for University of Houston students, covering both theory and real-world application. 
4. Providing fundamental concepts in microbiology and genetics, Microbial Biotechnology 1 (University of Houston: Venkatesh Balan, Abdul Latif Khan, Albert Flavier, Ariana Santiago) will also cover recent developments in the field, as well as applications of microbial technology in a variety of industries.
5. Native American Spirituality and Indigenous Knowledges 2  (University of Houston: Claire Mummert, Laura Marshall Clark, Ariana Santiago) will explore the beliefs and spiritual practices of many Indigenous tribes across the U.S. This OER aims “to nest Native knowledges and practices (allowed to be shared publicly) within tribal historical and cultural contexts.”
6. Healthcare Systems and Informatics  (University of Maryland: Karen Clark, Eileen Harrington, Eric Belt, Becky Menendez) addresses a major gap in the availability of healthcare delivery systems, informatics, and nursing related OER by breaking down the concept of informatics specifically in healthcare delivery.
7. Using examples and providing practical machine learning exercises, Machine Learning for Data Analysis (University of Maryland: Bardia Yousefi, Lan Ma, Emily Bailey, Eileen Harrington) will teach students about the fundamentals of machine learning methods.

OER Release Alert: The Rebus Guide to Publishing Open Textbooks (So Far)

The Rebus Guide to Publishing Open Textbooks (So Far) has been going through rolling updates over the past few months and we are proud to announce that version 3.0 has been released!

The Rebus Guide to Publishing Open Textbooks (So Far) is for anyone thinking about starting an open textbook project. It starts at the beginning of the process, with chapters on project scoping and building a team, and then moves on to content creation and editing, getting feedback and reviews, coordinating release and adoptions, and sustaining the book’s community.

Changes to Rebus Community Software

ICYMI, we’re making a few changes to sections of our software — the project homepages, project team tags, and custom textbook directory. Please take a few minutes to read the announcement detailing the changes and our timeline! We’re excited that these changes alongside moving the software to a new URL (forum.rebus.community) will let us facilitate better connections with and amongst all of you.

Registration for #OpenEd22 is open!

#OEROfficeHours Updates