One challenge we have to overcome when remixing textbooks is our own mindset. You mentioned faculty reluctance to modify the work of others, and some of this is because that's how we were trained by publishers. You had to find the best option available in a print text and then use it as best you could -- just not teaching certain sections, providing additional info via handouts or course note packs. We're probably still doing that with OERS, but we're forgetting that we can change the actual document.

Another hurdle is our own level of technical no-how. While some folks have instructional technologists to help them do the modifications, others don't and don't know how to do it themselves. When my department began piloting and OER for ENGL 1101, I was amazed at how many of my colleagues didn't even know how to use bookmarks in a pdf document. These are smart, good teachers (I assume), but they weren't familiar with how to manipulate even a pdf because it's just not in their skill set. The ease of modification of an OER will be a huge factor in how much it actually gets remixed.

Given the low stats on open textbook users adapting them, I suspect you're right that there's some tendency to keep using the same work-arounds we've become used to with commercial textbooks. But I think the technical hurdle would be a big one (I know it could be for me depending on formats etc.). As you've pointed out, a lot of this just isn't part of people's skill sets. Yet.

Have you found any good resources for helping colleagues learn some of those technical skills? For that matter, thinking back to your comment about formatting for online reading (on the 4.1 discussion page), are there any resources you could recommend with some good design principles etc. for this? Thanks!

There is an upcoming OERu course called "Digital Skills for Collaborative OER Development" in the works. I am not sure the exact date, but it looks like it is being developed to help bridge that skills gap https://wikieducator.org/Di...

Thanks Clint. I didn't know the course was out there, and it looks like a great way to pick up some of those skills. I didn't notice a date either, but it looks like even if I'm not able to take the course, it would be worth looking more closely at what I can learn from the structure, approach, and materials on the site so far.