Introduction to the Palomar Guide to OER and Pressbooks

Why This Guide Exists

Faculty often come to OER with a specific question: Where can I find a free textbook for my course?

That is an important question, but it is only the beginning of what open educational resources can make possible.

OER gives you an opportunity to think differently about the relationship between your course and its learning materials. Instead of designing a course around the organization and content of a publisher’s textbook, you can begin with what your students need to learn and then choose, adapt, combine, or create the resources that best support that learning.

The Purpose of This Guide

This guide was created to help Palomar College faculty navigate the OER process without making that process feel more complicated than it needs to be.

You may be here because you want to:

• understand what OER is and whether it makes sense for your course;
• find an existing OER textbook or other open resources;
• determine whether you have permission to use or change something you found;
• adapt an existing OER to better fit your students;
• combine resources from several places;
• turn materials you have already created into an OER;
• create something new when the resource you need does not exist;
• develop or publish a book using Palomar Pressbooks;
• make sure your OER is accessible and ready to share;
• develop the activities, assessments, and other resources that support the OER in your course; or
• maintain and improve an OER you are already using.

You do not have to do all of these things. You also do not have to create an entire textbook from scratch to use OER successfully.

A Few Terms You’ll See Throughout This Guide

You do not need to become an expert in OER terminology before you begin. These are a few terms that will help you navigate the guide:

• Open Educational Resources (OER): teaching and learning materials that are free to access and openly licensed so others can use them and, depending on the license, adapt and share them;
• Course Outline of Record (COR): the official approved document that establishes the required elements of your course, including what students are expected to learn. Your COR should guide decisions about your course and learning materials;
• Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC): a course in which students are not required to purchase a textbook or other instructional materials. A ZTC course may use OER, but it does not have to;
• Creative Commons license: a license a creator can use to clearly communicate how others may use, share, and sometimes adapt their work;
• Attribution: giving appropriate credit to the creator and source of an OER you use; and
• Pressbooks: a publishing platform for creating and sharing books in web, PDF, eBook, and other formats. Palomar provides and supports its own Pressbooks platform.

How This Guide Is Organized

If you are beginning a new OER project, the chapters are organized in a suggested sequence. The process starts with your course and what students need to learn, then moves through finding and evaluating resources, planning and developing your OER, publishing and sharing it, and improving it through use.

This is a suggested path, not a requirement to complete every chapter. Some parts of the work naturally build on others. For example, you need to identify potential OER before you can decide what to adopt, adapt, or remix.

If you already have an OER or are working on a specific part of the process, go directly to the chapter that addresses what you need. When an activity depends on work you may not have completed, the guide will help you identify what you need.

Choose Your Own Path

Use the guide based on where you are in the process:

You Do Not Have to Start From Scratch

One of the most important ideas in this guide is that creating OER does not necessarily mean writing a textbook from a blank page.

You may already have lecture notes, Canvas pages, presentations, activities, handouts, examples, study guides, or other materials you have developed because your students needed them. Other educators have also shared textbooks, chapters, images, videos, activities, and other openly licensed resources that you may be able to use and adapt.

Your OER might ultimately be:

existing OER + materials you have already created + a few new pieces to fill the gaps.

The goal is not to create more work. The goal is to make intentional decisions about what your students actually need and focus your effort there.

You Do Not Have to Do This Alone

Developing OER can involve many kinds of work: course design, research, writing, editing, copyright and licensing, accessibility, technology, and publishing. You are not expected to be an expert in all of them.

Think of the process as building your own publishing team. Depending on what you are working on, that team might include colleagues in your discipline, an Instructional Designer, accessibility and technology specialists, librarians, other OER authors, students, and AI tools that can assist with appropriate parts of the work.

Support available at Palomar:

• Meet with an Instructional Designer for help with course design, OER planning, alignment, and development.
• Work with the Academic Technology Resource Center (ATRC) for Pressbooks, accessibility, and educational technology support.
• Connect with CALM for support for institutional processes or funding related to OER or ZTC.