During the informal conversations that followed a celebration of Open Education Week at UTS, I found myself talking about the possibility of writing an open optics textbook. This was not a sudden burst of idealism, but the resurfacing of a frustration I encounter every semester when I teach optical physics. The commercial textbook we nominally use (the best we have found and widely recognised) is expensive, uneven in topic coverage and pitched at a level that rarely matches the students sitting in front of me. Many students respond by falling back on their first‑year textbook, reassuring themselves that it is sufficient. As a result, the optics text often becomes something I teach around rather than teach with.
The challenges of finding well-aligned textbooks
It would be easy to frame this problem purely as an access issue, and cost does matter. For me, though, the deeper problem is pedagogical alignment. Optics is rife with persistent student misconceptions, yet textbooks often proceed as though students already know more, are more mathematically fluent and can assimilate new concepts more tidily than is typically the case. Many standard texts appear to be written for an idealised, highly prepared cohort from a different educational context. My teaching is shaped by the knowledge and constraints of current UTS students. An open textbook offers a way to teach those students directly, rather than constantly translating from someone else’s imagined audience.
Openness does come with trade‑offs. In optics, figures and diagrams are central to understanding. Open resources make high‑quality visuals harder to produce because this work can no longer be outsourced to professional publishers. There is a strong temptation to wait until everything is polished. What the OER book launch highlighted for me, however, is what can be gained during the process. This includes iteration while teaching, responsiveness to student struggles and greater ownership over structure. Perfection may be comforting for academics, but what works for students matters more.
Additional considerations
Copyright was not something I had given much thought to before the event. The intensely competitive Copyright Quiz and the presence of UTS copyright lead Anna Troiano mainly served as a reminder that it is something I need to take into account when developing teaching materials.
The event also prompted me to reflect on how this work is valued. Open education labour sits awkwardly alongside publications, grants and formal workload models: often admired, but not always counted. Public recognition, such as the Open Education Champions celebrated at the event, therefore matters. When the impact is visible, more people can justify investing time.
If a colleague asked why they should bother with open education, my answer would be pragmatic rather than abstract. I would point to students learning from material that actually fits their context and to teachers regaining agency over how their discipline is taught. For me, open education is primarily about pedagogy. My next step is modest. I will start small, involve co‑teachers and students early and allow my open teaching materials to evolve through use.