Lead Authors plan, write, and revise textbook content for the Open Curriculum Development Project while coordinating a team of Contributing Authors. Please read Unit 0 for an introduction to the entire project.

The Lead Author receives a stipend of $14,000 over two years to accomplish the work described below. Contracts and payment schedules are created upon your acceptance of the Lead Author role, in line with your institution’s practices.

This role is not an hourly or salaried position. The weekly time commitment varies depending on milestones and deadlines. Past participants have reported that the time commitment was greater than they expected, so please consider your availability carefully!

Team Coordination

• Collaborate with Project Manager to coordinate work of approximately 3 Contributing Authors.
• Recruit or recommend additional contributors as needed, including Contributing Authors, Peer Reviewers, and Course Pilot Instructors.
• Serve as primary contact between author team and support team in providing progress updates and meeting deliverables.
• Ensure completion of the {Course #} About this Book document and textbook manuscript at each stage of development.
• Finalize drafts handed in by Contributing Authors.
• Encourage the author team to collaborate effectively and efficiently.

Content Development and Oversight

• Attend Open Curriculum Development training by completing assigned tasks and participating in online meetings.
• Provide domain expertise in theory, methods, assessment, or other specialized areas across the textbook development project.
• Assess the current state of the course and educational materials, and stakeholder needs, with a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• Draft textbook outline and chapter structure in collaboration with Contributing Authors; maintain an updated outline for your textbook.
• In coordination with the support team, provide clear direction on book and chapter structure and writing tone, to ensure a cohesive whole.
• Write new content or remix existing openly licensed content for up to 4 chapters of the textbook, in addition to front and back matter in a shared Google Drive. This content includes learning objectives, keywords, and discussion questions in addition to core content.
• Create or find supplemental educational material for your chapters and the textbook. These materials may include media like podcasts or videos, discussion questions, case studies, or community learning opportunities. Chapter content should support flexible teaching modalities and meet project accessibility standards.
• Incorporate feedback from Developmental Editor and external reviewers to prepare the entire manuscript for classroom pilots and handoff to the Revising Author.

Related Roles

• Lead authors may choose to pilot the curriculum in Year 2 of the project. This step is paid as a separate effort. See Pilot Instructor for more information.
• Lead authors may take the Revising Author role to prepare the manuscript for launch based on feedback from peer reviewers, pilot instructors, and students in Year 3 of the project. This step is paid as a separate effort. See Revising Author for more information.

Timeline and Deliverables

This table shows the major phases of work by the Lead Author (subject to change).

Licenses and Attributions for Lead Author

“Lead Author” by Open Oregon Educational Resources is licensed under CC BY 4.0.