Recent builds in business and nursing

In this guide we’ve included two sample chapters to demonstrate the direction that we would like our Business and Nursing OER to take. The sample chapters showcase some of the potential of Pressbooks as well as the implementation of the four phase design model that is discussed in the Open at Scale: Project Guidelines. Each chapter has been revised and shortened to serve as an example in this guide, but the original OER are available in the eCampusOntario Open Library.

Business

Over one weekend in March 2018, seven college educators from Business joined eCampusOntario Program Managers for a Sprint to develop two resources for foundational business studies at Ontario colleges. Fundamentals of Business: Canadian Edition was an adaptation of Virginia Tech’s book of the same name. Existing open resources, Communication in the Real World: An Introduction to Communication Studies and Understanding Media and Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication, were mined to create Communication for Business Professionals.

These OER were created shortly after important and impactful enhancements to the Pressbooks EDU platform including H5P and WYSIWYG editor improvements.

Nursing

From the press release of Vital Sign Measurement, the OER in health highlighted in this guide:

An open textbook about vital sign measurement was created using a multi-modal platform that incorporates visual, audio and kinesthetic learning. The textbook is based on a progressive learning format of read, observe, practice and test oneself. It combines textual information, visual images, and video clips that facilitates learners’ competence with measuring temperature, pulse, respiration, oxygen saturation, and blood pressure.

Students played an important role in contributing to the design and production of this open textbook. A student and faculty advisory team provided input into the development of the open textbook. These advisory groups were consulted at multiple points during the creation of the book. Their input revealed existing gaps in current resources and the student group in particular shared ideas on what best helped learners. These students were also engaged in the development of this open textbook as they played the role of actors and were involved in the editing and production of the images and video clips. Lastly, both advisory groups reviewed and provided feedback on a complete draft of the open textbook prior to release.

One chapter from this resource was recreated here, using H5P and injecting educational technology.