Things You Never Thought to Build in Pressbooks

Imagine a digital space where students can reflect on their learning, showcase their achievements, and build a professional identity—all while developing digital publishing skills. That’s the premise behind My Learning Journey, an openly licensed template designed to help students create their own learning portfolios using Pressbooks. With customizable chapters, prompts for self-reflection, and built-in accessibility features, this project shows how Pressbooks can support metacognitive learning and personal storytelling, not just content delivery.

Diagnosis is a board-game-inspired diagnostic tool that helps health students practice clinical reasoning in a playful, low-stakes environment. Using Pressbooks’ as a resource hub, the authors built an interactive, case-based game where students move through scenarios, make decisions, and get real-time feedback.

It’s a creative example of how Pressbooks can be used to simulate decision-making and create gamified learning experiences—no code or complex software required.

Looking to move beyond lectures? This resource turns Pressbooks into a launchpad for active learning, where students step into professional roles and rehearse real-life workplace scenarios.

This open resource equips students to practice real-world workplace scenarios like performance reviews, salary negotiations, and team conflict through structured, improv-style interactions. With downloadable scripts, observer prompts, and embedded reflection activities, the resource scaffolds communication skills in a safe, active learning environment.

By publishing in Pressbooks, the authors created a flexible, updatable toolkit for teaching professional skills—one that works across disciplines, formats, and delivery modes

Humans R Social Media is more than a textbook—it’s a continuously evolving exploration of how digital platforms shape our identities, relationships, and cultures. Created by Diana Daly at the University of Arizona, this “living book” serves as both a teaching tool and a collaborative student project, updated regularly to reflect the ever-changing nature of social media.

This open textbook invites input from students (in the form of memes, videos, and other media) , revising and expanding the content each semester to reflect emerging ideas, new platforms, and shifting cultural dynamics. The result is a dynamic, student-powered resource that’s always current and always in progress.

What if your classroom doubled as a publishing house? At the University of North Alabama, English professor Jason McCall brought this idea to life with Lion Bridge Publishing, a student-run imprint created through an in-class publishing internship.

McCall designed the course to give students full ownership of the publishing process—from manuscript review to book production. In its first semester, students published My X’s by Alina Steanfusco. Using Pressbooks, they collaborated on editing, layout, and production gaining real-world experience without leaving the classroom.