Open Education 2015

Code sprints are a popular method of collaborative software development in the open source software world. During a code sprint, a group of programmers gather together for a short term, intensive and tightly focused programming session to create collaborative software projects.

Modeled after these collaborative code sprints from the open source software development world, a book sprint is an intensive content creation retreat that aims to build an open textbook from start to finish in less than a week.

In June of 2014, 5 Geography faculty from 4 post-secondary institutions in British Columbia converged at UBC to create a first year regional Geography textbook in just 4 days. Supported by a librarian, instructional designer, illustrator, programmer, and a Book Sprint facilitator, we ended the four day book sprint with an open textbook created completely from scratch.

In this session, we'll explore this unique model of OER content creation with three participants who were involved in the project. This session will address the benefits and challenges involved with this unique method of collaborative OER creation, what we learned about open education and collaboration, and the practicalities of organizing and executing a successful book sprint.