Open Educational Resources Collective

The CAUL Open Educational Resources Collective provides a shared open textbook publishing platform (via Pressbooks) for participating CAUL Member institutions. It facilitates both independent publishing by authors at participating institutions, as well as collaborative, cross-institutional publishing. The Collective builds community and capacity across CAUL Member institutions to support open textbook publishing.  

The Collective has three objectives: 

1. Build infrastructure, capacity and achieve tangible outcomes to move the OER agenda forward at a national level. 

2. Facilitate collaborative authoring and publishing of open textbooks in targeted priority disciplines, with a preference for the inclusion of local and/or Indigenous content. 

3. Allow Member institutions to publish their own textbooks (anticipated to be up to two per year) in disciplines of their choosing. 

CAUL Member institutions are at various stages of development in terms of their exploration of open textbooks. The aims of the Collective allow Member institutions with different goals and different needs to benefit from the Collective. The Collective draws on the strength of networks within the CAUL membership to encourage cross-institutional collaboration on open textbooks and facilitate knowledge sharing. 

The Collective began as a two-year pilot commencing January 2022 under an opt-in participation model. 

Check out the current list of published titles on the catalogue: https://oercollective.caul.edu.au/catalogue/ 

Check out the current list of forthcoming titles: https://oercollective.caul.edu.au/forthcoming.  

Due to the pilot's success and popular demand, the Collective will continue to operate through to 2025 in line with CAUL's Open Educational Resources Strategic Enabling Program. 

 

What can participants expect from the Collective in 2024? 

Institutions can join under one of two tiered options. 

1. Local Institution Member - AUD 3,500 (01/01/2024-31/12/2024) 

Aimed at institutions that already have an open publishing platform and would like to benefit from the collective knowledge of CAUL institutions. 

Once subscribed, interested library staff and supported academic authors are entitled to: 

• Apply for strategic textbook grant

• Access two communities of practice – one for library staff and one for academic authors 

• Attend 12 themed, 1-hour webinars on requested topics and an online community sharing day 

• Access live and recorded training and guides and templates updated regularly 

• Access to the OER Collective Pressbooks Platform if involved in a new or continuing collaborative OER Collective project 

 

2. Collective User Member – AUD 4,000 (01/01/2024-31/12/2024) 

Aimed at institutions that would like to create and publish OERs on the OER Collective Pressbooks Platform. 

Interested library staff and supported academic authors are entitled to all items included under the Local Institution Membership plus: 

• Space to publish two** open textbooks on the shared OER Collective Pressbooks Platform per year. 

** Up to two additional book spaces can be purchased at USD 500 each. 

 

If you have any questions about the Collective, please email oercollective@caul.edu.au.