Textbooks are no longer tomes of text or flat content. They have evolved across the educational landscape and expanded beyond traditional understandings to incorporate technology, interaction, and feedback. These developments open up a world of possibilities for impacting learners’ success and engagement while facilitating educators’ expertise and creativity. eCampusOntario’s preferred platform for resource development, Pressbooks, provides opportunities and supports for educators to enrich their learners’ experiences.

Once experiencing Pressbooks, you will likely wrestle with the very idea of Pressbooks being promoted as a platform to create textbooks. Currently, it is capable of doing so much more and has a commitment to continue to evolve.

Pressbooks background

Established in 2011, Pressbooks is a Canadian company committed to improving its open source software and keeping control of content in the hands of creators. It transforms a multi-site WordPress install into a ‘book’. Working with OCADU’s Inclusive Design Research Centre, accessibility is a main concern of the platform and it continues to improve accessibility on both the front facing and backend.

Openness is another tenet:

In addition to being open source, we are also active advocates of the open web, open content and open education. Of course, Pressbooks doesn’t force content to be “open” — this is the user’s decision.  But the power of open is at the core of how Pressbooks is built, and how we run our company. (https://pressbooks.education/pressbooksedu-plans/)

Accessibility and openness combine in other features of Pressbooks. With its multiple export options (nine as of March 2019), users can connect with Pressbooks content in way(s) that make sense for them e.g., PDF print copy, EPUB3, mobi. eCampusOntario has also entered into a partnership with the University of Waterloo to ensure creations on Pressbooks have an option for low-cost, professionally printed and bound copies. Thanks to the University of Waterloo’s commitment to learners, it is a cost recovery model with no extra cost.

One of eCampusOntario’s first supports for Ontario educators and learners was its investment in Pressbooks EDU. The EDU platform option includes the bells and whistles facilitating a more engaging and interactive experience. eCampusOntario provides free access to the platform and has sponsored many of enhancements now benefitting the wider community of Pressbooks EDU users:

• academically-friendly themes ~ McLuhan and Jacobs
• more options and greater accessibility of pre-formatted textboxes
• whitelisting popular websites e.g., TEDtalks, youTube
• H5P plugin activation option
• and more to come!

View a quick introduction to Pressbooks:

PressbooksEDU Intro Video by Pressbooks on YouTube.