Introduction

Approaches to Open Pedagogy: A Guide for Practitioners, continues a longstanding commitment to open education initiatives at North Carolina State University Libraries. To understand the roots of this work, we look back to 2014 and the launch of the Alt-Textbook Project (refer to Chapter 2, Open Education Development at NC State University Libraries for more information).

NC State’s Alt-Textbook Project provides grants and embedded support to faculty interested in adopting, adapting, or creating openly-licensed materials, as well as those exploring open pedagogical approaches in their teaching. In June 2024, to celebrate the program’s 10-year anniversary, the Libraries hosted a day-long retreat that brought together instructors, librarians, learning technologists, and other stakeholders. The event served as a think tank to explore how the Libraries could strengthen and sustain their open education initiatives moving forward.

Several strong themes emerged from that retreat—including the need to build deeper community connections among practitioners, increase faculty recognition, and develop more sustainable approaches to course materials.

In response to this feedback, a subgroup of the Alt-Textbook Project committee convened a small group of instructors who had developed Open Educational Resources (OERs) or adopted open teaching practices. Together, they brainstormed actionable ways to encourage community-oriented thinking and raise the visibility of faculty contributions to open education. One outcome was the idea to create a shared public resource where both current and former instructors could contribute their work. This platform would allow faculty to showcase assignments, provide implementation guides, and reflect on their experiences in a more narrative, storytelling format.

This book emerged from that vision. It is designed to highlight the expertise and efforts of faculty engaged in open education, helping elevate their professional profiles. By openly sharing their experiences, we hope to inspire colleagues to pursue similar projects.

To support the creation of this resource, librarians from the Alt-Textbook Project committee secured seed funding from an internal Libraries “Good Idea Grant” to organize writing sprints in the spring 2025 semester and offer small grants to the initial contributors in recognition of their time and effort.

With the publication of this community-authored book, we hope to continue celebrating the important work faculty are doing—and the meaningful impact they’re having on students.