OpenIntro: Building, Sustaining, Supporting, and Growing Open-Source Educational Resources

OpenIntro’s (openintro.org) mission is to make educational products that are free and transparent and that lower barriers to education. The products include textbooks (in print and online), supporting resources for instructors as well as for students. In this talk we will discuss how the OpenIntro project has shaped and grown over the years, our process for developing and publishing open-source textbooks at the high school and college level, and our computing resources such as interactive R tutorials and R packages as well as labs in various languages. We will also give an overview of our project organisation and tooling for authoring, collaboration, and maintenance, much of which is built with R, R Markdown, Git, and GitHub. Finally, we will discuss opportunities for getting involved for educators and students contributing to the development of open-source educational resources under the OpenIntro umbrella and beyond.

Transcript

1. Building, Sustaining, Supporting
   ,
   
   and Growing Open-Source
   
   
   Educational Resources
   mine-cetinkaya-rundel
   cetinkaya.mine@gmail.com
   @minebocek
   🔗 bit.ly/openintro-jsm2021
   mine çetinkaya-runde
   l
   
   duke university & rstudio
   

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2. OpenIntro’s mission is to make educational
   products that are free, transparent, and
   lower barriers to education.
   mission
   🔗 bit.ly/openintro-jsm2021
   

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3. openintro.org
   🔗 bit.ly/openintro-jsm2021
   

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4. team
   🔗 bit.ly/openintro-jsm2021
   

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5. books labs & tutorials other
   packages
   🔗 bit.ly/openintro-jsm2021
   

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6. Preliminary Edition
   how it
   
   
   started
   how it’s going
   🔗 bit.ly/openintro-jsm2021
   

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7. Preliminary Edition First Edition Second Edition
   First Edition
   First Edition
   🔗 bit.ly/openintro-jsm2021
   

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8. ๏Applications as motivation
   
   
   ๏Real, recent, relatable datasets
   
   
   ๏Emphasis on data exploration, multivariable
   relationships, and statistical reasoning
   
   
   ๏Guided practices and worked examples
   interspersed in text
   
   
   ๏Lots of end of chapter exercises, with solutions
   to odd numbered questions in the back
   pedagogy
   🔗 bit.ly/openintro-jsm2021
   

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9. license
   🔗 bit.ly/openintro-jsm2021
   

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10. ๏HTML textbook freely available
    
    
    ๏PDF also freely available —
    distributed through LeanPub with a
    suggested donation (min $0)
    
    
    ๏Paperback available at low cost
    — cost of printing + minimal
    royalty that goes back to
    OpenIntro (US-based nonpro
    fi
    t)
    “business” model
    🔗 bit.ly/openintro-jsm2021
    

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11. ๏Each chapter its own Rmd
    fi
    le
    
    
    ๏Output to HTML and PDF with the same source code
    (and lots of customization!)
    how it’s made
    🔗 bit.ly/openintro-jsm2021
    

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12. how it looks
    🔗 bit.ly/openintro-jsm2021
    

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13. custom blocks
    ๏Challenge: Achieve similar looking custom blocks in HTML and PDF output
    
    
    ๏Solution: Fenced div blocks + Custom blocks chapter of the R Markdown Cookbook
    🔗 bit.ly/openintro-useR2021
    ::: {.guidedpractice data-latex=""}
    
    
    :::
    Rmd
    .guidedpractice {
    
    
    padding: 1em 1em 1em 4em;
    
    
    margin-top: 30px;
    
    
    margin-bottom: 30px;
    
    
    background: #f8f8f8 5px center/3em no-repeat;
    
    
    border-top: 1px solid #569BBD; /* openintro::COL[1,1] */
    
    
    border-bottom: 1px solid #569BBD; /* openintro::COL[1,1] */
    
    
    background-image: url("../images/_icons/guided-practice.png");
    
    
    background-position: 0.5em 1em;
    
    
    }
    
    
    .guidedpractice:before {
    
    
    content: "Guided practice";
    
    
    clear: right;
    
    
    display: block;
    
    
    font-weight: bold;
    
    
    font-variant: small-caps;
    
    
    color: #569BBD;
    
    
    }
    CSS
    \newenvironment{guidedpractice}{
    
    
    \vspace{4mm}
    
    
    \begin{mdframedwithfootGPWE}
    
    
    \begin{minipage}[t]{0.10\textwidth}
    
    
    {$\:$ \\ \setkeys{Gin}{width=2.5em,keepaspectratio}
    \includegraphics{images/_icons/guided-practice.png}}
    
    
    \end{minipage}
    
    
    \hfill
    
    
    \begin{minipage}[t]{0.90\textwidth}
    
    
    \vspace{-2mm}
    
    
    \setlength{\parskip}{1em}
    
    
    \noindent\textbf{\color{oiB}\small\fontfamily{phv}
    \selectfont{\MakeUppercase{Guided Practice}}} $\:$ \\ \\
    
    
    }
    
    
    {\end{minipage}
    
    
    \end{mdframedwithfootGPWE}
    
    
    \vspace{4mm}
    
    
    }
    LaTeX
    

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14. plots
    ๏Challenge: A consistent and branded look for plots
    
    
    ๏Solution: De
    fi
    ne theme_openintro() and rede
    fi
    ne ggplot2 defaults
    ggplot2::update_geom_defaults("point", list(color = openintro::IMSCOL["blue","full"],
    
    
    fill = openintro::IMSCOL["blue","full"]))
    
    
    ggplot2::update_geom_defaults("bar", list(fill = openintro::IMSCOL["blue","full"],
    
    
    color = "#FFFFFF"))
    
    
    ggplot2::update_geom_defaults("col", list(fill = openintro::IMSCOL["blue","full"],
    
    
    color = "#FFFFFF"))
    
    
    ggplot2::update_geom_defaults("boxplot", list(color = openintro::IMSCOL["blue","full"]))
    
    
    ggplot2::update_geom_defaults("density", list(color = openintro::IMSCOL["blue","full"]))
    
    
    ggplot2::update_geom_defaults("line", list(color = openintro::IMSCOL["gray", "full"]))
    
    
    ggplot2::update_geom_defaults("smooth", list(color = openintro::IMSCOL["gray", "full"]))
    
    
    ggplot2::update_geom_defaults("dotplot", list(color = openintro::IMSCOL["blue","full"],
    
    
    fill = openintro::IMSCOL["blue","full"]))
    🔗 bit.ly/openintro-jsm2021
    

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15. exercises
    ๏Challenge: Reproducibility while still not making all solutions publicly available
    
    
    ๏Solution: Develop in a separate (private) exercise bank and automate generating book
    fi
    les
    …
    For book (public):
    
    
    ๏All questions (_Q)
    
    
    ๏Short answers for odd numbered exercises (_SA)
    
    
    ๏Source code available
    For veri
    fi
    ed instructors (private):
    
    
    ๏Full solutions for all exercises (_A)
    
    
    ๏Only output available
    🔗 bit.ly/openintro-jsm2021
    

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16. Inclusivity & accessibility
    ๏ Real and high quality data, especially in examples on
    applications that touch human lives
    
    
    ๏ Case studies on topics of societal importance without
    trivializing the multifaceted issues that underpin them
    
    
    ๏ Random names generated from culturally diverse sources
    
    
    ๏ Avoid gender stereotypes and gendered pronouns
    
    
    ๏ Color-blind friendly color scheme and alt-text on images
    🔗 bit.ly/openintro-jsm2021
    

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17. books labs & tutorials other
    packages
    🔗 bit.ly/openintro-jsm2021
    

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18. ๏Challenge: Promote computing (with R) while also providing a textbook is language
    agnostic and can be used in courses that do not teach computing
    
    
    ๏Solution 1: Computational labs (case studies) provided separately, but linked throughout
    the book
    labs
    🔗 bit.ly/openintro-jsm2021
    

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19. ๏Challenge: Promote computing (with R) while also providing a textbook is language
    agnostic and can be used in courses that do not teach computing
    
    
    ๏Solution 2: Supplement with interactive R tutorials developed with learnr
    tutorials
    🔗 bit.ly/openintro-jsm2021
    

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20. books labs & tutorials other
    packages
    🔗 bit.ly/openintro-jsm2021
    

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21. 🔗 bit.ly/openintro-jsm2021
    

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22. Depends:
    
    
    R (>= 2.10),
    
    
    airports,
    
    
    cherryblossom,
    
    
    usdata
    +
    🔗 bit.ly/openintro-jsm2021
    

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23. books labs & tutorials other
    packages
    🔗 bit.ly/openintro-jsm2021
    

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24. ๏Veri
    fi
    ed teacher resources: slides, sample exams, full solutions
    
    
    ๏Forums
    
    
    ๏New venture: Non-stats textbooks
    
    
    ๏…
    🔗 bit.ly/openintro-jsm2021
    

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25. contributing
    🔗 bit.ly/openintro-jsm2021
    

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26. ๏Open an issue
    
    
    ๏Make a pull request
    github.com/openintrostat
    🔗 bit.ly/openintro-jsm2021
    

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27. openintro.org
    ๏Send feedback
    
    
    ๏Report a typo
    🔗 bit.ly/openintro-jsm2021
    

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28. openintro.org/teachers/get_involved
    ๏Datasets: Data hunter
    
    
    ๏Exams: Exam contributor
    
    
    ๏Exercises:
    
    
    ๏ Exercise contributor
    
    
    ๏ MyOpenMath exercise conversion
    
    
    ๏Labs:
    
    
    ๏ Lab solution developer
    
    
    ๏ New software owner
    
    
    ๏ New lab developer
    
    
    ๏Modules:
    
    
    ๏ Module developer
    
    
    ๏ Module editor
    
    
    ๏Translation
    
    
    ๏Your ideas?
    🔗 bit.ly/openintro-jsm2021
    

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29. thank you!
    mine-cetinkaya-rundel
    cetinkaya.mine@gmail.com
    @minebocek
    mine çetinkaya-runde
    l
    
    duke university & rstudio
    🔗 bit.ly/openintro-jsm2021
    

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