Your reader made it all the way to the end of the chapter – whew! The required chapter closers restate the main takeaways from the chapter and offer opportunities for students to confirm that they met the chapter learning objectives (for chapter closer examples, revisit figure figure Y1 4.3). This is a place to close the loop on one of our Learner Focus criteria for success: Chapter contains all the parts needed to accomplish the learning objectives.

We include multiple types of formative assessment at the end of each chapter to support the ongoing formation of knowledge. Short questions or problems invite students to think critically, make comparisons, and reconsider their assumptions in a low-stakes format. Most importantly, formative assessments such as discussion questions, self-reflection prompts, and interactives allow students to self-check their comprehension of learning objectives before they move on.

Analyzing the Chapter Conclusion

Like your chapter overview, your conclusion does not have to be long. You may be able to state what your chapter accomplished in just one paragraph. Your conclusion should include a summary of the key takeaways you want students to understand from the chapter.

Analyzing Open-Ended Reflection Prompts

Open-ended reflection prompts are invitations for students to engage more deeply with your chapter content. Offer students a set of at least 3 questions that invite the reader to engage more deeply with your chapter content. From the student perspective, these prompts encourage different approaches to connecting with new concepts. From the instructor perspective, prompts may become required or optional assessments, discussion board posts, or other course design elements.

Here are some examples:

• Discussion questions
• Journal entries
• Web scavenger hunts
• Current events connectors
• Image search for key concepts
• Social media post or meme.

Analyzing the Self-check Question Set

H5P is an authoring tool that allows authors and instructors to create interactive content that is embedded in your Pressbook. Our project uses two accessible H5P question types: multiple choice and true/false. Questions should always include automatic answer feedback to guide students in further study and review. One of our Learner Focus criteria for success is that each chapter includes at least 3 accessible H5P interactives that are tied to chapter learning objectives.

What if you write H5P questions that check knowledge on content that changes in a later draft of your book? This is an entirely reasonable question. We have three pieces of advice to avoid feeling that your time has been wasted when aligning with chapter revisions.

First, write H5P questions that are laser focused on the learning objectives for your chapter. You and your team have put a lot of thought into writing these and they have been through a round of peer review and revision, so any changes to learning objectives in future iterations of your book are likely to be minor.

Second, remember the vlogbrothers concept of “80/20 [Streaming Video]”: just get to 80 percent, and move on. It’s OK if writing H5P questions falls into your 20 percent for your first chapter draft submission. You can write them after you’ve received your Developmental Editor’s feedback and completed your chapter revisions. Based on past experience, we expect that most authors will take this option, which is why we cover how to write H5P questions in more detail in Unit 9.

Third, when you write your H5P questions, write quickly. Your H5P questions will go through review and revision before we get to the launch edition of your book, so don’t get bogged down on this chapter element. The students who pilot your book next year will benefit from the self-check opportunity and your questions will benefit from receiving feedback.

Analyzing the Reference List

If you summarize, paraphrase, or quote from a source that is not in a Licenses and Attributions section of your chapter, include an in-text citation and a reference list entry. The reference list meets one of our Representation of Diverse Voices criteria for success: Chapter includes accurate citations and attribution statements.

Follow standard academic citation practices for your discipline. Touch base with your team to make sure that everyone agrees on which citation and reference list style you will follow. Please make a team decision and apply it consistently to each chapter in the book.

The reference list begins on a new page at the very end of your chapter. This keeps it out of the way for student readers who find the information distracting. It is still readily available for readers who want to follow a citation to the source.

Licenses and Attributions for Analyzing Chapter Closers

“Analyzing Chapter Closers” by Open Oregon Educational Resources is licensed under CC BY 4.0.