Open Textbook Authoring withPressBooks Textbook

Clint LalondeManager, Open Education, BccampusCCCOER Webinar April 8, 2015

Unless otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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Connect the expertise, programs, and resources of all BC post-secondary

institutions under a collaborative service delivery framework

• Promote & support the development & use of Open Educational Resources

• System wide initiatives to facilitate the enhancement of a high quality teaching & learning

culture.

Open Education & Professional Learning

The BC Open Textbook Project

40 free & open textbooks for highest

enrolled 1st & 2nd year post-secondary

subjects in BC

2014 – 20 for skills & training

First province in Canada

2014 – AB & SASK MOU

$1 million

2014 - $1 million

Visual notes of John Yap announcement, Giulia Forsythe Used under

CC-SA license

Don’t reinvent it by Andrea Hernandez released under CC-BY-NC-SA and based on Wheel by Pauline Mak released under CC-BY license

Students Faculty

1. Free2. Choice of formats

a. Webb. Printc. eBook

3. Can retain

1. Easy to find2. Address Quality3. Support Adapt/Create

Beyond a “book”

“the thing that interests me most about where we are in the world of books is

imagining new and different kinds of models for book publishing. To build new

models, we need open platforms that allow people to experiment with new

ideas.”

Hugh McGuire http://codepoet.com/2013/08/29/hugh-mcguire-interview/

The blurring lines between books and the internet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5iNeDwve1U

Publish Many

Write Once/Import

PressBooks.com

Hosted, commercial service

PressBooks Plugin

Self-Hosted Open Source WP plugin

PressBooks Textbooks Plugin

Extends PB plugin

Pro

• Hosted. Need little tech support

Pro

Con

• No control of platform

• Designed for fiction, not TB

• Cost

• Full control of entire platform

• Open source

Con

• Designed for fiction

• Requires tech support

• Proprietary PDF engine (PrinceXML)

Pro

• Full control of entire platform

• Open Source

• Textbook specific features

Con

• Requires tech support

• Proprietary PDF engine (PrinceXML)

BCcampus developed

Development Cycle

BCcampus develops & contributes code

To PressBooks OS plugin

PressBooks OS plugin code merged

with PressBooks.com

Pressbooks Textbooks PluginExtends PB plugin • Add Creative Commons licenses

• Add Textbook specific features

• Learning Outcomes, Exercises &

Key Takeaways

• Search

• Annotation (Hypothes.is)

• Added API (Application Program

Interface)

More than a book (book as application)

"An API, or "Application Program

Interface", is a set of routines and

protocols that provide building

blocks for computer programmers

and web developers to build

software applications."

http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/the-increasing-

importance-of-apis-in-web-development--net-22368

More than a book (book as application)

What we are working on now

• Accessibility features (FLOE Project)

• Replace PrinceXML with Open Source PDF engine

• New ODT output (Word Compatible)

Finding us

Open Textbook Project: open.bccampus.ca

PressBooks plugin: wordpress.org/plugins/pressbooks

PressBooks Textbook plugin: wordpress.org/plugins/pressbooks-textbook

PressBooks Textbooks GitHub (developers): github.com/BCcampus/pressbooks-textbook

Example of a PBTB book: opentextbc.ca/geography

Thank You

open.bccampus.ca

@bccampus @clintlalonde