How to Self-Publish a Professional Quality OER

Yang Wu, Clemson UniversityFollow

Presentation Type

Presentation

Start Date

8-4-2026 1:10 PM

End Date

8-4-2026 1:40 PM

Description

OER are often not professionally published, and this major factor prevents adoption. Many OER have not undergone pre-publication peer review, copyediting, and high-quality design and typesetting, nor have they been assigned ISBN numbers and Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs). In response there has been a call for developing professional quality OER in recent years, and to enhance the quality of OER with accessibility features. However, many prospective OER authors and librarians supporting them lack the know-how to create such publications. This presentation provides a guide on how to do so, and where OER authors and librarians can obtain professional publication services and accessibility advice. The presenter, an OER librarian who has published professional quality engineering textbooks through a US Department of Education grant, discusses the larger online marketplace supporting self-publishing that has emerged in recent years, how OER advocates can use it to hire publishing professionals and accessibility experts, and shares best practices for self-publishing based on his experiences. With a presenter from an under-represented background, this presentation also discusses the importance of making OER accessible and how to create ADA compliant OER resources.

With a presenter from an under-represented background, this presentation also discusses the importance of making OER accessible and how to create ADA compliant OER resources.

Author Bios

Yang Wu, Open Resources Librarian at Clemson University, South Carolina is a OER specialist with experience in many types of Open Education activities. He served on several major OER organizations, including the Open Education Network Steering Committee and OpenEd Conference Advisory Board and graduated from the CC License course and multiple SPARC and Open Education Network training programs. Yang actively supports OER publishing and received an US Department of Education Open Education Pilot grant in 2021.

Comments

The project has received funding from the US Department of Education’s Open Textbook Pilot Program.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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Apr 8th, 1:10 PM Apr 8th, 1:40 PM

How to Self-Publish a Professional Quality OER

OER are often not professionally published, and this major factor prevents adoption. Many OER have not undergone pre-publication peer review, copyediting, and high-quality design and typesetting, nor have they been assigned ISBN numbers and Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs). In response there has been a call for developing professional quality OER in recent years, and to enhance the quality of OER with accessibility features. However, many prospective OER authors and librarians supporting them lack the know-how to create such publications. This presentation provides a guide on how to do so, and where OER authors and librarians can obtain professional publication services and accessibility advice. The presenter, an OER librarian who has published professional quality engineering textbooks through a US Department of Education grant, discusses the larger online marketplace supporting self-publishing that has emerged in recent years, how OER advocates can use it to hire publishing professionals and accessibility experts, and shares best practices for self-publishing based on his experiences. With a presenter from an under-represented background, this presentation also discusses the importance of making OER accessible and how to create ADA compliant OER resources.

With a presenter from an under-represented background, this presentation also discusses the importance of making OER accessible and how to create ADA compliant OER resources.