ODS Design Standards
Whether working with an adapted OER or starting from scratch, the following elements must be considered.
Style
- Learning Outcomes should be in the LO box and start with “At the end of this chapter, learners will be able to,” followed by a bulleted list.
- Ensure learning outcomes start with measurable verbs. Replace instances of “understand” and “know” with other verbs. See the learning objectives guide.
- Format according to the style guide. Add textboxes to break up the content. See textboxes.
- Decide if icons should be used in the text boxes (see standard icons). If a custom or specialty icon is needed for a box, please consult with the graphic design team for potential options.
- Add a Chapter Overview to each part (chapter) and add the links to all subsections of the chapter. See example.
- Use Grammarly to check for spelling and grammar and fix any issues. Use Canadian English spelling.
- Add end-of-page attributions for all pages in the OER if applicable. See Custom Software Resources for a handy tool to help with creating attributions.
- Check all copyrighted content used has a proper in-text citation and reference in the reference list at the end of the book. If the adapted book has footnotes, please replace them with in-text citations.
- Numbering
Additional Design Elements – CSS Code
Bolded headings. Once the Studio Boilerplate CSS code has been added to the Custom Styles page, this will happen automatically, along with rounded text boxes and other studio style preferences. If you do not see these styles applied by default, ensure the boilerplate code has been added to the book.
Accessibility
- Use appropriate heading tags for titles/headings. Make sure headings start at H2. If the following content is part of this section, you can add H3 or H4. If new content, H2. We do not use Heading 1s.
- Format lists
- Redevelop any images of tables into proper tables.
- Links should have a descriptive name, not a URL.
- Alt text for all images unless there is an image description. The image description is in the caption unless too long, and then it can be added to an accordion below the image.
- Check all images for colour contrast and any images to the graphic designer to recolour if contrast requirements are not met.
Media
- Videos are sourced below, and the video’s title is linked to the source, the author, and the [time]. See attributions.
- Check that all videos have transcripts. If not, use AI to generate a transcript and add it to the back matter for the book with a link under the video.
Ancillary Resources
- Bold any keywords and add them to a keyword list at the end of the chapter.
Adapted Texts
Break out the content into sub-sections for adapted textbooks where all content for each chapter is on one page. See Book Structure for more information.
