Open Textbook Quandry

In the last two years, I have been attempting to increase the number of open practices I use in my work. One goal was that I wanted to increase the number of open textbooks used in the psychology programme for which I am chair. Dr Rajiv Jhangiani (@thatpsychprof) from Kwantlen Polytechnic University, co-editor of a book on Open, and co-founder of http://openpedagogy.org/ was very generous in giving me some of this time, and to point me to many sources of good open textbooks in different sub-disciplines in psychology. I compiled a good list of potential textbooks for use.

However, when I examined these open textbooks I found that they were roughly at the same level of detail as the online learning materials that we produce for our online learners. I didn’t feel that I could use these as textbooks as it would double up on the available materials at the same level of complexity. The one open textbook that I felt was detailed enough to use with the programme’s introduction to psychology module was Stangor, C. & Walinga, J. (2018) Introduction to psychology – 1st Canadian Edition, B.C. Open Textbook Project. British Columbia. This is of sufficiently greater detail than the module’s learning materials that it is useful to the learners as they go from the learning materials to the next level of complexity in associated readings. I will continue to look at available open textbooks looking for viable options. I am also reflecting on what this experience says about the level of detail in my programme’s learning materials. Maybe these are too complex and detailed if they appear to be as detailed as what is available as open textbooks. Maybe these learning materials could become open textbooks of their own…