Developing a Corequisite Writing Textbook

How Two Novices Handled the Complex Nature of Open Textbook Production

Abstract

Despite the growing body of scholarship focused on Open Educational Resources (OERs), studies tracking open textbook production are exceedingly rare. To gain insight into the complexities associated with open textbook development, this article’s authors used concurrent verbalization and pre- and post-concurrent verbalization interviews to document writing episodes while composing their first coursebook, an open-source text designed for corequisite course pairings of writing fundamentals and introduction to technical writing. Corequisite classes combine content-area instruction with explicit skill-building opportunities, and although commercial publishing houses do produce corequisite textbooks for traditional general education courses, the authors were impelled by the need to create a specialized coursebook for a STEM-focused writing corequisite. Qualitative content analysis of the data collected during ongoing coursebook development revealed how the novice textbook authors navigated complexities when sourcing material for the book, formatting content, and embedding hyperlinks into chapters. Open textbook development offers a variety of professional development opportunities, and the details provided herein could be instructive to others embarking on open coursebook projects and inspire further inquiry into ongoing open textbook production. This paper also exposes the dynamic interaction between textbook content as designed and operationalized, offering implications for the research field of materials development.