We’re thrilled to announce the arrival of a new team member, Steel Wagstaff. Steel will work with our EDU clients to help them get the most out of their PressbooksEDU systems for OER initiatives. We couldn’t have found a more qualified candidate for the role. If you’re in open education, you’re probably already familiar with
What’s New on PressbooksEDU This week’s release brings with it a number of improvements to the default behaviors and interface of Pressbooks. Removed Suggested Videos from Embedded YouTube Videos YouTube videos embedded in platforms like Pressbooks naturally roll over into suggested videos once the video ends. As a platform for educational texts, we recognized the
The University of Florida, having recently acquired a hosted PressbooksEDU network in partnership with the Unizin higher education consortium, is looking to ramp up its OER production in the coming months. Jennifer Smith, director of the Office of Faculty Development and Teaching Experience, tested the tool herself to “ensure that the tool will be helpful
The Evolution of Affordable Content Efforts in the Higher Education Environment: Programs, Case Studies, and Examples, edited by Kristi Jensen and Shane Nackerud, is one of the latest books to be published by University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing on the Libraries’ Pressbooks network. The book is a compilation of case studies that delve deeply into
We’re always trying to make your Pressbooks experience better—more user-friendly, more customizable, and more enjoyable. You can look forward to a few improvements to changes on Pressbooks, coming out today. Read on for details. Improved Book Cloning We’ve come a long way since we first rolled out the cloning feature for PressbooksEDU networks in August
University of Texas at Arlington is using its PressbooksEDU system as a platform on which to build open educational resources as part of UTA Libraries’ open education program. Open Education Librarian Michelle Reed says the program supports open education broadly, including distribution of grant funding for the creation and adoption of OER, as well as
The University of Texas – Arlington PressbooksEDU network was created in February of 2018. Creating Online Learning Experiences, by UTA Learning Innovation Coordinator Matt Crosslin and collaborators, was the first book released on the network. Originally, the book was conceived as a resource for instructors working with his department to create massive open online courses,
University of Wisconsin-Madison has been using Pressbooks as a platform to facilitate open educational resources (OER) and open textbook publishing for years. Steel Wagstaff, an instructional technology consultant at UW-Madison, piloted the use of Pressbooks at the university starting in 2015 to help faculty create open educational resources for the UW-Madison’s College of Letters &
We’ve got a big series of changes to Pressbooks book themes coming up. Depending what stage your book is in, you may want to take action. Read on for details. Why the changes? The Pressbooks team has been working on developing better, standardized, more user-friendly book themes for almost a year now. If you’ve been
At The Ohio State University, Pressbooks has become an integral platform for the university’s open textbook affordability initiative. The university already has 18 published books on its Pressbooks network, a handful of private books being used in OSU classes, and almost 60 new books in development, says Michael Shiflet, Digital Publishing Coordinator, Affordability and Access,