Hello! I’m Sanika, and it’s been three weeks since I’ve started on as the Open Textbook Creation Intern at the Information Services Group at the University, working with the Digital Skills, Design and Training section.
In these three weeks, I’ve edited educational resources for primary and secondary school students, formatted a digital handbook, and learnt what all those tiny symbols at the bottom of the page mean about copyright. I’ve been eager to implement the things I know from my previous experiences, and even more excited to discover how much I didn’t know about academic publishing and graphic design.
My role is truly interdisciplinary, as I am working with the Open Educational Resources team, the Graphic Design Service and Edinburgh Diamond.
One thing that has surprised me about the role is how much responsibility I’ve been given. It’s common in internships to be overlooked and relegated as an intern to give a miscellaneous task to when managers remember we exist. That has not been the case here. I have been included wholeheartedly in the eBook project, formatting prototypes to compare with graphic designers, and putting together a project plan that was actually implemented! The work I do has an actual impact on the project, and my name is being published on blog posts on Open.Ed, and adaptations of OERs. It’s a really good feeling to be treated as a member of the team rather than someone that is superfluous, and it’s been such a welcoming environment. I’ve been able to n ask questions and learn about the structures already in place at ISG, as well as how the DSDT section is developing different services and products that contribute to the academic outputs at the University.
With the OER team, I’ve been working closely with Charlie Farley, learning about intellectual property rights, the specifics of open licensing, and the benefits of having accessible, free education on students.
The costs of textbooks are not included in course fees, and it is a price that many students cannot afford to pay, especially when taking multiple courses that all require a specific textbook. When textbooks are openly licensed, authors can make continuous revisions to improve the content as information changes or new discoveries are available, and students can save money. Another, frequently unsaid, benefit of open licensed eBooks is that piracy will decrease, as students often resort to illegal means to access these expensive textbooks (Carey; Jones). While unethical as it ignores the rights of the authors, it is something that occurs every day at institutions, whether it is made public or not. If students simply do not have the extra funds to afford academic materials as well as basic living expenses, must their learning suffer? Which is worse?
These are questions that I’ve been asking myself since beginning the internship, as well as concluding that openly available textbooks would be the obvious solution to this.
To make these resources truly accessible to all possible needs, I have been working along the Graphic Design Service to create eBooks in both PDF and EPUB formats. The benefits of PDFs are that they are universal to any system and often do not require a specific software to open them. They are fixed pages, and will not rearrange themselves, assuring that text and other media will not become disorganised across downloads. EPUBs on the other hand require software or other clients to access, and they are reflowable, arranging themselves to fit any screen size. Users can change the background colour, the colour of the text, the font, the font size and many more aspects to improve the reader experience. It is also compatible with all screen readers, internal to the device or a specific external one, and text will be read out in a chronological manner, which as a PDF could have multiple columns, it could potentially disrupt the flow. As EPUBs are text files, they can be read on braille readers as well, widening the accessibility of the resource. I’ve had a hands-on experience with creating templates for eBooks and have discovered the capabilities (and limitations) of both formats in online resources.
These accessibility requirements have been championed by Edinburgh Diamond; the publishing partner based in the University of Edinburgh Library. Rebecca Wojturska has been a fascinating person to speak with, as she has so much knowledge about academic publishing and the greater industry that I wish to join after graduation. Edinburgh Diamond represents the heart of open publishing, where it is free to publish a work, while still retaining copyright, and giving free access to students to read it. It is a mission that is based in library services and open learning, and I’ve been learning so much about publishing from analysing the details of the books, journals and other materials on the platform. Studying the publication ethics and terms of service for editors, authors and publishers has taught me about the processes behind getting works into the public sphere (as well as catching tiny spelling errors in these!).
My internship has been ultimately guided by Tess Higgins, the Service Manager for the eTextbook Project, and she has guided me through my induction and introduced me to all the key figures on the team. As my direct manager, I go to her with my (many) questions, and she has been endlessly helpful.
I am really excited to continue my internship and see what else I can learn while being guided by this amazing team. You’ll be seeing my name around on blog posts so keep an eye (or an ear) out!
References
Carey, Kevin. “Never Pay Sticker Price for a Textbook Again.” Slate Magazine, Slate, 20 Dec. 2012, slate.com/technology/2012/12/boundless-and-the-open-educational-resources-movement-are-threatening-publishers.html.
Jones, Matthew. “Why We Can’t Overlook Textbook Piracy.” Times Higher Education (THE), 18 May 2019, www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/why-we-cant-overlook-textbook-piracy.
Header image: Victoria Street in Edinburgh by Daniel Kraft licensed by CC BY-SA 3.0
