“My experience has been overwhelming and developed with high standards. I will tell every colleague that I know, that this has been an enlightenment for education and certainly different approaches for the well being of students. Learning has been experienced in many ways in terms of approach, materials used, appropriateness for students, and ways to save money. I strongly recommend participation, involvement, and learn the knowledge given by the Rebus TSP and all presentations given by facilitators.”
Doris Spooner Hall, Adjunct Instructor of Woodwinds,
Southern University and Agricultural & Mechanical College
Graduate of the LOUIS 2021 Cohort
“Highly successful and it means we can work together to achieve the best.“
Christian Clement, Associate Professor of Biology,
Southern University at New Orleans
Graduate of the LOUIS 2021 Cohort
“This is an excellent opportunity to create inclusive open access to education for all. For far too long economic social systems have been in place to exclude women and BIPOC individuals from equitable access to education. I am grateful for the opportunity to participate in this program that will help to remove some of these barriers.“
Jennifer Blanchard, Instructor of Horticulture,
Louisiana State University
Graduate of the LOUIS 2021 Cohort
“The TSP has a team that cares and it was great to be able to see and talk with other people committed to OER!“
Tracy Tomlinson, Lecturer of Psychology,
University of Maryland
Graduate of the May 2021 Cohort
“The TSP program introduced me not only to an amazing way to publish, but also to a supportive, resourceful community of like-minded people. I think about publishing in completely new ways as a result of this program.“
Graduate of the February 2021 Cohort
“Participating in the Rebus community was a wonderful journey. It is a model of the way professional development should work.“
Graduate of the February 2021 Cohort
“The Rebus Textbook Success Program provides a great overview of open publishing and a process for working on an achievable project. The cohort model provides formative feedback on the project as well as a space to productively discuss some of the thorny nuances of sharing openly.”
Stacy Katz, Associate Professor and Open Resources Librarian-STEM Liaison,
Lehman College, CUNY
Graduate of the February 2021 Cohort
“The Rebus Textbook Success Program is a masterpiece of open education content, organization, and community-building. The amazing Apurva Ashok is insightful, knowledgeable, helpful, and supportive — she skillfully guides a TSP cohort through a host of important (and some complex) topics, keeping everyone involved, building group cohesion, supporting everyone to continue to contribute and build relationships. Absolutely a tremendously worthwhile program to help build capacity for OER creation projects and equip participants to tackle skillfully the many issues which will inevitably come up in a big (valuable!) OER project.”
Jonathan Poritz, OER Coordinator,
Associate Professor of Mathematics,
Colorado State University – Pueblo,
Graduate of the May 2020 Cohort
“The level of support and guidance offered through the textbook success project was outstanding.”
Judah Viola, Associate Professor of Psychology,
National Louis University
Graduate of the May 2020 Cohort
“The Rebus Textbook Success Program was an invaluable resource for helping me connect with the broader open community, and it certainly helped my team of educators develop its open textbook. Detailed scaffolding is there for those who are less familiar with open archives, software, and other resources. The Rebus support team, especially Apurva, fosters encouragement and support. And those who participate in the program become part of your life. It’s really the perfect professional development experience for those working on OER textbooks.”
Joel Gladd, Instructor, Department of English,
College of Western Idaho
Graduate of the February 2020 Cohort
“I really appreciated the opportunity to zoom in close to the process of developing an OER team and project from the ground up. As a librarian, I’ve promoted OER use and helped authors share completed works, but the TSP expanded my knowledge of the whole endeavor of textbook authoring.”
Matt Ruen, Scholarly Communications Outreach Coordinator
Grand Valley State University Libraries
Graduate of the February 2020 Cohort
“When I started the Textbook Success Program, I did not know the first thing about curating and creating a book using Open Education Resources. By the end of the program, my colleagues and I were able to produce and pilot a modular first-year composition textbook designed around our state’s learning outcomes for written communication. The “textbook” itself has been invaluable to my teaching and has shaped my thinking about pedagogy. I am so grateful for this opportunity to learn and grow in a supportive, knowledgeable learning community.”
Liza Long, Assistant Professor, Department of English,
College of Western Idaho
Graduate of the February 2020 Cohort
“The Textbook Success Program facilitated growth in my knowledge of OER and teaching pedagogy. Without this program, my project would not be where it is. I highly recommend this program to anyone working in OER.”
Courtney Karasinski, Associate Professor and Director of Speech-Language Pathology, Grand Valley State University,
Graduate of the February 2020 Cohort
“The Textbook Success Program has been fantastic. The materials are clear, useful, and often address aspects of OER I hadn’t even conceived of prior to the program. The facilitators are the best I’ve worked with, and their approach to online meetings has even informed how I run meetings and remote instruction. The opportunity to work alongside other teams has been very encouraging and rewarding. Although I was already familiar with open publishing and pedagogy before the program, I now feel far better equipped.”
Ryan Randall, Librarian, Instruction Coordinator & Faculty Outreach, College of Western Idaho
Graduate of the February 2020 Cohort
“If you want your open access material to be more than just a resource for your specific class, then this program will give you the skills to move beyond your classroom. Some of the material seems daunting but the end result of our efforts will now be much better after going through this program. Also, all open access texts will benefit from the higher quality of material that this program promotes. The cross-disciplinary nature of our cohort helped make us realize that we are all in this together to improve education… Many academics dream about writing books or need to write books for tenure. This program makes those dreams come true in many ways and facilitates better educational opportunities for students.”
Virginia Sisson, Instructional Professor of Geology, Director of Summer Field Geology, Co-director of Geoscience Learning Center, University of Houston
Graduate of the February 2020 Cohort
“The Textbook Success Program instilled me with the confidence that we were releasing high quality open education materials packaged professionally and with the backing of a support team (academically, emotionally, and fiscally). The collaborative nature of the project ensured that we were integrating diverse perspectives and approaches to not only content but delivery and teaching approaches as well.”
Amy Minervini, Instructor, Humanities Division,
Lewis-Clark Community College
Graduate of the February 2020 Cohort
“This program helps a project and individual grow and strengthen as a designer/developer or other roles in a project over time. All the resources to build a project are wonderful and positively affect growth of a project and community around a project.”
Julie Meyer, Instructional Designer, Instructional Services
Penn State Schuylkill
Graduate of the February 2020 Cohort
“Being part of Rebus gave me the opportunity to have an outlet where I can write my book and have it accessible to my students at no cost for them.”
Franziska Borders, Adjunct of German,
Boise State University
Graduate of the February 2020 Cohort
“The TSP is a fantastic way for individuals and teams to learn about the process of creating, sharing, and improving instructional materials. Information about book-production and distribution is helpful to both novice and experienced writers, editors, adopters, and adapters of educational resources. Thanks for sharing a collaborative community of educational practice with us!”
Michael Polgar, Associate Professor of Sociology, Pennsylvania State University
Graduate of the February 2020 Cohort
“The TSP was a focused journey through open publishing that inspired me and my fellow educators to play with tools, expectations, and interests in pursuit of new creative goals”
Jonathan Lashley, Associate Chief Academic Officer,
Idaho State Board of Education
Graduate of the February 2020 Cohort
“This program informs and educates participants on every facet of creating an OER textbook.”
Graduate of the February 2020 Cohort
“The Rebus TSP has been an invaluable experience that has lifted the veil off the publishing process in various ways, and has given me the confidence to continue supporting these projects in the future, as well as possibly endeavoring on my own at some point.”
Amanda Wentworth, Digital Humanities and Learning Coordinator, SUNY Geneseo
Graduate of the October 2019 Cohort
“I am very grateful to have participated in the Textbook Success Program. The incoming editor for a new open textbook (Donna) and I joined at the very beginning of our project. Our project has thus benefited from having a common foundation in content development, review, publishing, and marketing, and reduced substantive efforts for me in providing all of the background knowledge (and more) a new author might need. It also gave me the freedom to participate as a learner. The cohort model was wonderful for sharing ideas, strategies, problems, and exploring tools and solutions. Apurva is extremely knowledgable and patient; I highly recommend taking this program with her.”
Anita Walz, Assistant Director of Open Education and Scholarly Communication Librarian, Virginia Tech
Graduate of the October 2019 Cohort
“The Textbook Success Program was a great opportunity to learn about the wide variety of projects that are happening in the open publishing world. In addition to learning about the entire open publishing process from someone with a lot of experience, it was really valuable to have people learning and applying new skills and thought processes alongside me.”
Samantha Dannick, Engineering & Scholarly Communication Librarian, Alfred University
Graduate of the October 2019 Cohort
“The main goals of this program were to provide a rich, collaborative and fun experience in open publishing. These goals were successfully achieved.”
Walcir Cardoso, Professor, Education, Concordia University
Graduate of the October 2019 Cohort
“I would encourage anyone who is considering authoring or editing an open book to take a part of this program. The advice and strategies are incredibly practical and the cohort of like-minded professionals lent support along the way. As the publishing process moved ahead, we were able to learn from others who had previous experience. This program served as a life line to someone who was a novice to publishing in the open.”
Graduate of the October 2019 Cohort
“The Textbook Success Program has helped me gain the insights to plan publishing projects with confidence. Learning from others going through the same process for the first time provided valuable perspectives on difference ways to undergo the steps of publishing. I appreciated the advice and support of the other members and the Rebus team. I’d recommend this program for anyone looking to increase their knowledge of managing open publishing projects to ensure it is done thoughtfully and successfully.”
Graduate of the October 2019 Cohort
“The Textbook Success Program provides invaluable knowledge and resources for embarking on a publishing project!”
Graduate of the October 2019 Cohort
“The Textbook Success Program provides a very safe and supportive space for people to learn about the ins and outs of open textbook publishing.”
Graduate of the October 2019 Cohort
“The Textbook Success Program is a whirlwind tour through Rebus’s extremely well-planned and -organized approach to open publishing. The weekly sessions in the first, intensive professional development phase are full of insightful material and engaging conversations. The facilitator was responsive to the group’s needs and kind and supportive of all of us.”
Jonathan Poritz, OER Coordinator, Director of Teaching and Learning, Associate Professor, Colorado State University-Pueblo
May 2020 Cohort
“I found the course to be engaging, thorough and informative. The facilitator was engaging and always available for questions and feedback. I absolutely felt supported and feel confident that I will be supported in the future. I couldn’t ask for more.”
William Redmon-Palmer, Community Outreach Liaison, Baltimore OUTloud
May 2020 Cohort