Presentation to CCCOER on the Pressbooks open textbook authoring platform

1. Open Textbook Authoring with
PressBooks Textbook
Clint Lalonde
Manager, Open Education, Bccampus
CCCOER Webinar April 8, 2015
Unless otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Feel free to use, modify and/or distribute any or all of this presentation, with attribution.

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. Students Faculty
1. Free
2. Choice of formats
a. Web
b. Print
c. eBook
3. Can retain
1. Easy to find
2. Address Quality
3. Support Adapt/Create

6. 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

8. Publish Many
Write Once/Import

10. 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

11. Development Cycle
BCcampus develops & contributes code
To PressBooks OS plugin
PressBooks OS plugin code merged
with PressBooks.com

12. Pressbooks Textbooks Plugin
Extends PB plugin • Add Creative Commons licenses
• Add Textbook specific features
• Learning Outcomes, Exercises &
Key Takeaways
• Search
• Annotation (Hypothes.is)
• Added API (Application Program
Interface)

13. 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

14. More than a book (book as application)

15. What we are working on now
• Accessibility features (FLOE Project)
• Replace PrinceXML with Open Source PDF engine
• New ODT output (Word Compatible)

16. 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

17. Thank You
open.bccampus.ca
@bccampus @clintlalonde