After water, tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world. Compared to wine, beer, and coffee, which are developed fields of study at UC Davis, reliable literature on tea remains wanting while misinformation is profuse. The UC Davis Global Tea Institute (GTI), building on the University’s strength in Food and Beverage Science and the GTI’s holistic approach to the study of tea, has begun to develop a textbook for Tea Studies for use as part of a college-level curriculum. This presentation describes our initial attempts to leverage our talented pool of students to create a student-centered Open Educational Resource (OER) on the LibreTexts platform, with potential expansion into Press Books, to generate a textbook organized around student interests with unique, interactive learning exercises. The presentation will include how we introduce the concept of OER to students, how we provide a foundation of tea knowledge and a range of topics for them to address, and some examples of student outcomes.
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