Welcome! This book is intended to help guide University of Iowa faculty and students working with Open Educational Resources (OER). Whether you’re getting ready to use an OER for the first time, adapting or remixing existing OER, creating your own, or some combination of these things, this book is here to help answer any questions you may have.

This guide is itself an OER. It uses the Pressbooks platform and is licensed to be reused by anyone, anywhere, and in any way.

Using this Book

This book is divided into eight different parts, all addressing an aspect of OER creation. Parts I and II can assist you as you begin your journey with OER. In these parts, you will learn what OER is, how to find OER materials, what goes into making an OER textbook, and what kinds of resources are available at the University of Iowa Libraries. Parts III–VI are a style guide for OER creators. They include information on how to format and style your OER text. Additionally, this section shares information on how to cite your sources and add media and tables to your text. Finally, Parts VII and VIII look at making your OER accessible and how to include OER in your curriculum.

In the Appendix of this book, you will find resources on finding OER resources online and at the University of Iowa, as well as additional information on the terms used in this guide and how to format citations. There is also find a brief editing checklist and style sheet that you can use during the production and review process of your book.