The Open Textbook Toolkit: Developing a New Narrative for OER Support

This paper focuses on IMLS-funded research we have done around the practices and needs of psychology instructors considering adopting or creating open educational resources (OER). Over the past year and a half, we have gathered information and developed a plan for creating a subject-specific, scalable “open textbook toolkit” that will meet the needs of instructors looking to adopt, adapt, or create OER. In this paper, we identify a set of themes for support of OER in psychology courses, as well as guidance for applying these results in other fields. It also provides a framework for librarians to develop their own research agenda in this area.