1 Planning Your Timeline

Creating OER in a year’s time

The Regents OER grant program requires a one-year turnaround time for project completion. This may seem like plenty of time, but it will go fast. In working with many OER development teams, we have found that careful planning and management helps projects succeed on a condensed timetable. We recommend that you spend some time carefully plotting out what tasks you will need to complete your project, when those tasks need to happen, and which members of your team will complete them.

plotting your project

In later chapters, you will find recommendations for specific tools and platforms for generating timelines, assigning tasks, and other aspects of project management, but your timeline document can be as complex or simple, and as mediated by technology, as you want it to be.

At a basic level, each team should create a list of milestones that will need to be completed at various points in the year. These include things like:

• making sure grant funding has been properly distributed among team members,
• outlining the content needed for your OER,
• deciding on authoring platform and formats,
• gathering source material,
• writing individual chapters,
• reviewing chapters,
• checking content for accessibility,
• adding photos, multimedia, quizzes, etc. to chapters,
• completing progress reports,
• peer review and editing,
• layout and design, and
• project completion and dissemination.

All team members should have access to your team’s timeline, so that it serves as a collaborative document. You may consider assigning tasks to individuals depending on their role. Some project management programs allow you to set deadlines and reminders and track your progress toward meeting milestones.

Managing your team

As you begin your project, keep in mind that you have a team working with you, and consider how you will keep everyone on your team involved and engaged in the OER creation process. Here are some things to do at the very start:

• Articulate why your project is important to you, and share this with your team, along with clear expectations about their roles in the project. Keep this documented and read it over and share it whenever you need a reminder.
• Start creating the book’s outline, including any necessary context or framing up front, plus a list of chapters with descriptions, pedagogical outcomes, and the types of features or elements that will recur through the text.
• Work with your team to create a rough timeline – this can and likely will change over time, but plotting a first version will help you estimate timing and give you some initial milestones to work to.
• Distribute the workload among your team members and look for other possible assistance from offices at your institution (see our Getting Help chapter for more information).
• Give some consideration to team members’ other personal and professional obligations when planning your timeline. Try to schedule major milestones for points in the semester when work is lighter. Each team member should feel empowered to set their own deadlines and work schedules in alignment with the larger tasks of the group.
• Decide on the various tools you will be using for project management, communication, writing, editing, review, and formatting.