The Media Innovation & Entrepreneurship open textbook was launched with support from the Rebus Community in 2017 and has been updated each fall since. The project involved almost 30 authors, 12 faculty beta testers, countless student beta testers, and more than a dozen peer reviewers. In this session, co-editor Elizabeth Mays will talk about the collaborative process that was used to build this open educational resource, and what the editors learned from that experience. The session will span topics such as finding cross-institutional contributors, managing a multi-author project, maintaining an OER after publication, and facilitating adoption by a broad base of instructors in a discipline.

1. Building a community
while building a textbook

2. I am Elizabeth Mays
I am here to talk about the collaboratively built
Media Innovation & Entrepreneurship open
textbook.
You can find me at @theeditress
Hello!
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3. a (shared) problem
Lots of educators had begun teaching entrepreneurship
in j-schools, but there was no suitable “textbook.”
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4. Dr. Michelle Ferrier
Dean, School of Journalism &
Graphic Communication at
Florida Agricultural and
Mechanical University
Co-editors
Elizabeth Mays
Lecturer ASU
Also work with Pressbooks
(and previously Rebus)
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5. 30+
authors
12+
Peer reviewers
12 classrooms
Of faculty and student beta testers

6. Project Scoping & Planning
Outlining the project and recruiting contributors
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7. Outlining the project
◉ Spreadsheet of chapters (and later sidebars)
◉ Vetted the spreadsheet with faculty teaching
the subject
◉ Ideas of who could contribute each section
◉ Who declined, who accepted, and deadlines
◉ Intentional effort to find diverse contributors
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8. Key takeaways
◉ Getting early buy-in helped to create
ownership and interest.
◉ Seek out qualified authors with something to
gain from contributing (tenure, publication, a
resource to use in their class, career
advancement, professional visibility, etc.)
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9. Authoring & Editing Content
And project management to chase it down!
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10. Working with authors
◉ Author guidelines
◉ Frequent check-ins / followups
◉ Substantive edits
◉ Editing and proofreading
◉ Author revisions
◉ Editing and proofreading
◉ Vetting images
◉ Accessibility
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11. Key takeaways
◉ Set the deadline way earlier than you want it.
◉ Allow time for multiple rounds of edits and
back-and-forth with authors.
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12. Formatting Content
Using Pressbooks
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13. Formatting the book in Pressbooks
◉ Multiple formats (Web, ebook,
print-on-demand, now Thin Common
Cartridge)
◉ The book identified a need for many features
Pressbooks has since added (glossary, better
tables, more granular contributor and media
attributions, changes to parts)
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14. Interactive possibilities of the
Pressbooks webbook
◉ Hypothesis for annotation (used in beta testing
and some peer review)
◉ H5P (added quizzes and interactives later)
◉ Download other formats (including the TCC for
other instructors to use as spine of book in
LMS)
◉ Multiple modalities for students (can read on
cell phone, download for offline, buy in print)
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15. Key takeaways
◉ I wish I would have better explained the
interactive capabilities / vision of the book
throughout the community calls.
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16. Web Book
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17. Community Calls
Feedback / dialogue from community of practice to the authors
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18. Biweekly calls using Zoom
◉ Invited all those we knew teaching the subject
○ We had their emails
○ Sent a reminder email closer to the call
◉ Promoted in relevant Facebook groups
◉ Made a video to promote the session
◉ Link to chapter for feedback was included in
the email.
◉ Included a mentorship/”how I teach this”
portion of the call - valuable to attendees 18

19. Key takeaways
◉ Involve the end users
◉ Actively solicit (and incorporate) feedback
◉ Builds ownership and sense of investment in
the project
◉ Builds sense of import of the project for
authors when they meet the end users
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20. Beta Testing & Peer Review
Gathering and incorporating feedback
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21. Multiple feedback mechanisms
◉ Invited faculty to biweekly calls - followed up
with authors to incorporate feedback
◉ Hypothes.is for student/faculty feedback
◉ Google form for submission of suggested edits
(we incorporated most)
◉ Single-blind peer review for each section (&
later several full-book reviewers)
◉ Also, 2 independent review processes by
repositories 21

22. Key takeaways
◉ Logging and then addressing all this feedback
was hard:(
◉ Sometimes reviewers disagreed, so there was
also a decision-making process
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23. Marketing the Book for Adoption
The book had a built-in community.
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24. Official launch!
◉ Emailed all faculty we knew personally + those
who attended calls + those who indicated
interest, those who’d beta tested
◉ Promote at each Scripps Institute
◉ It’s in the channels like Amazon
◉ Articles, social media, email
◉ New project splash page (thanks Rebus!)
◉ Revisions community call
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25. Key takeaways
◉ This was unusual because we knew the
intended audience personally and had been
involved in this community of practice
ourselves.
◉ Are there similar communities of practice
you’re involved in that you can leverage?
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26. Project Page
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27. Maintaining the Book
The hardest part?
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28. Summer revisions
◉ Keep the version stable during semesters
◉ Post note indicating what was added or
updated each fall
◉ Additions include things that didn’t make the
first deadline and updates to a few chapters
that are news-dependent
◉ Mix of authors pitching us and us identifying
potential authors for content needed
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29. Key takeaways
◉ This is where we need the community’s help
most.
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30. Resources
◉ Blog Post http://bit.ly/mie8thingswelearned
◉ Rebus Report http://bit.ly/mierebusreport
◉ Project Page (with reviews) http://bit.ly/mieprojectpage
◉ Book http://bit.ly/mieopentextbook
◉ YouTube Channel http://bit.ly/mieyoutube
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31. Credits
Special thanks to all the people who made and
released these awesome resources for free:
◉ Presentation template by SlidesCarnival
◉ Photographs by Unsplash
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32. Any questions ?
You can find me at
◉ @theeditress
◉ liz@pressbooks.com
Thanks!
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