By practicing what you preach, we showed the opportunity to deliver information in an appealing way. Whether you want to create a full textbook, a reader, or a collection of interactive tutorials, Jupyter Book is a great tool to do so. Whether it is the best tool, depends on your needs and preferences.
OIT or OCW?¶
At TU Delft, we distinguish between two types of educational materials: Open Interactive Textbooks (OIT) and Open Courseware (OCW).
An OIT is a self-contained educational resource that provides comprehensive coverage of a specific subject or topic. It is designed to be interactive, engaging, and accessible to a wide audience. OITs typically include various multimedia elements, such as videos, simulations, quizzes, and interactive exercises, to enhance the learning experience. The primary goal of an OIT is to facilitate independent learning and provide learners with a comprehensive understanding of the subject matter.
OCW is a collection of educational materials, such as a bundled set of lecture notes, assignments, and readings, that are made available online for free. OCW is typically used to supplement traditional classroom instruction and provide students with additional resources to support their learning. OCW materials are often created by educators and institutions and are intended to be used in conjunction with a specific course or curriculum.
To support creating and sharing both forms of Interactive Learning Materials, we have set up two platforms. Consider whether your materials are best suited for OIT or OCW, as this determines where you will publish them.
Figure 1:Place holder for a figure of the workflow before even starting a book.
Open Access¶
At TU Delft, we encourage open access publishing. This means that you make your materials available to everyone, free of charge. It allows others to make use of your materials, adapt them, and build upon them. Various forms of licenses exist to facilitate this, for instance CC0 allows to use the materials without and attribution, while CC-BY requires attribution (reference to the original work).
Consider what license fits your needs best, and when to publish your materials publicly. There is an option to publish your materials behind single sign-on (SSO), so only TU Delft students and staff can access them.
Level of expertise¶
Creating Interactive Learning Materials with Jupyter Book technology requires some level of expertise in various areas. The source files are either Markdown or Jupyter Notebook files (or tex files for JB2). Interactive materials can be made using Python or Javascript. Your materials will be version controlled using Git. Hence, what support you need depends on your level of expertise in these areas.
Copyrights and plagiarism¶
When creating educational materials, it is important to consider copyrights and plagiarism. Ensure that you have the right to use any materials you include in your work, such as images, videos, or text. If you are using materials created by others, make sure to give proper attribution and follow any licensing requirements. Additionally, be sure to properly cite any sources you use in your work to avoid plagiarism.