Office Hours: Defining Textbook Structure and Elements
Channel: Rebus Community
Date: 2018-09-19

The special guest at this month's session of the Rebus Community and Open Textbook Network Office Hours was Dave Ernst, Chief Information Officer in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Dave is the Director of the Center for Open Education and Executive Director of the Open Textbook Network (OTN).

What makes a textbook a textbook? Textbooks are fundamentally different from monographs and other publications; it is their structure that defines them. Defining a consistent structure for the entirety of the textbook is critical to students’ reading expectations and learning. How does an author decide how to structure their textbook? How can a project designer help with selecting the instructional design elements that create structure? In this office hours session, we learnt about common instructional design elements found in textbooks, and a methodology for working with authors to create a consistent, structured textbook. We shared related documentation and resources (https://canvas.umn.edu/courses/106630/pages/getting-started?module_item_id=1306046) for moving forward with your open textbook publishing program.

The audio and chat transcripts of this session are available on the Rebus Community website: https://about.rebus.community/2018/09/september-office-hours-defining-textbook-structure-and-elements-audio-and-chat-transcripts/