Monica Mars on creating impact through open textbooks

Mars explains that she struggled to find textbooks that connect sensory science with human nutrition and health when setting up a new course for nutrition students. The course is focused on the biology of sensory aspects, and how they relate to nutrition, for example, what kind of receptors are there, how does taste develop during our life span, how does it work in the brain?. The textbooks that Mars found addressed sensory science from a product development perspective. But these did not answer her need as her goal is "to educate students on how sensory properties affect eating behaviour and eventually nutrition and health".

Mars noticed that many students taking her courses had not yet had the opportunity to learn about the sensory aspects of nutrition before. Dutch universities of applied science (Hogescholen), where many of her students previously studied, don not focus much on the sensory properties of food.

Mars and her team set up a collaboration with all four Dutch dietetics programmes and the Higher Agricultural School (HAS). The collaboration provided valuable feedback and highlighted a shared need for fundamental sensory science knowledge in the context of nutrition and health. While the teachers she spoke to were enthusiastic about the topic, they also expressed that they did not have the opportunity to develop their own materials.

Mars hopes that the freedom she has benefits teachers in other institutions as well as raises more awareness on the topic with a wider audience, hence her desire to share her textbook as openly as possible. She is now processing all the feedback she has received on the book's first draft and hopes to publish an updated version before her course starts again in June 2025. She adds, before everyone wants to use the book in their teaching, we are not there yet; being a pioneer is actually quite complicated and time-consuming!

The team used Pressbooks, an open-source platform for educational content. Mars notes that Pressbooks allows students to scroll and navigate content easily, which she believes will improve learning outcomes. She piloted the textbook with her students and received positive feedback. Students appreciated that the textbook was user-friendly and compatible with mobile devices. They could also download it if they liked, and appreciated the interactive elements of the knowledge clips, she tells, contrasting it with traditional PDFs on Brightspace.

An open textbook can increase the reach and impact of research, Mars emphasises: "It is a great way to share our research findings beyond the scientific community". She feels that WUR teachers should think of open textbooks as outreach to society, as these textbooks broaden the audience for their research.

Mars textbook is already expanding beyond the initial scope of her course. She is planning to incorporate a chapter on formulating research questions, which was a request from the Hogescholen. "Making it open allows us to adjust content flexibly for different audiences".

Creating an open textbook presented some challenges. "As early adopters, we faced obstacles like the lack of an organisational account for Pressbooks", Mars recalls. With the help of WUR's Open Science and Education programme, they established the account, but Mars feels the university should make the process easier. Many teachers are interested in sharing their materials, but WUR lacks a streamlined system, unlike the one we have for MOOCs, she says.

For other educators, Mars advises that turning teaching materials into an open textbook takes only a small amount of extra effort. Our open textbook originated from existing course materials and published research, and we only needed to reorganise that to be useful for both our students and others.

At last year s Teaching Days, our session on the open textbook sparked interest from many teachers eager to develop their own. However, the infrastructure to support this is not fully developed yet.

The main issue is who should fund these innovative open science efforts as they span multiple departments. 
Mars explains that when implementing open practices, bureaucratic barriers often arise, especially around funding, since departments set their own rules. As pioneers, they faced a classic chicken and egg problem as some WUR departments needed her to demonstrate that the textbook would improve learning outcomes before they would support her in making it.

Mars believes WUR could benefit from a more standardised approach to open textbook creation, as is done with MOOCs. 

A step-by-step guide or workflow would help streamline the process for teachers interested in sharing materials openly. 
Copyright management is a complex aspect of open publishing, but WURs Copyright Information Point (CIP) supported Mars by ensuring third-party materials were compliant.

This Open Science Story is based on an interview with Monica Mars by Ben Excell, Open Science & Education community manager and Annemieke Sweere from WUR Library. November 15, 2024