Before beginning your OER, consider and document the following:

• Project purpose, scope and audience
• Resources and time needed
• Long-term sustainability plans

Consider keeping these notes in a shared document, a Word file or Google Doc works well. Alternatively, the OER Project Management Template linked below is a great choice.

Before creating a new OER, you should consider exploring existing resources that you might adapt. You can mix and match chapters or other materials. Remember, there's no need to write an entire book at once. You can start with a few chapters and gradually build your resource. This section of the guide will assist you in initiating and documenting your preliminary searches, which is crucial for managing copyright and licensing later on. It is vital that you track these searches from the beginning of the process. 

Adapted from Open Textbooks by UC Library, licensed under CC BY 4.0

There are a wide range of places to search for OER, check out the OER directory in this guide for a list. 

During this initial planning stage it will be important to think about the following:

Project team

Confirm that your co-authors have the time to commit to the project. Be upfront about the time commitment and what you need from them. You might like to start thinking about who you would like to peer review your work and approach them too. Similarly, if you would like a forward written, now is a good time to think about this. 

If you're planning to work with others from outside of the university, check in with them to confirm they have support from their organisation and the appropriate permissions to work with you. 

Funding

Are there any grants available to support your OER project? It’s worth exploring internal and external funding opportunities early on. Consider whether you’ll need to buy out teaching time, pay for services like video production or graphic design, or hire student assistants. The Project Management Tracker linked at the top of this section has tabs dedicated to budget and funding.

Ethics approvals

If your OER involves collecting data from students, such as through surveys, interviews, or classroom observations, you may need to seek ethics approval. This process helps ensure that participants’ rights, privacy, and consent are protected. Even informal feedback, if intended for use in publications or presentations, can require ethical clearance. It’s important to check the ethics requirements early on in the process. You should refer to the Research Integrity Unit (RIU) and the Integrity, Ethics and Compliance website for more information on ethics. 

It's important that all participants are aware of their responsibilities and have shared expectations for the project.

Author responsibilities are outlined in the previous section under library support. Everyone involved should also be familiar with the basics of copyright and Creative Commons licensing. Authors should agree in writing to copyright ownership and licence choices at the planning stage, especially when working on collaborative projects with external parties.