Books are no longer limited to bound, static paper objects. Don’t get me wrong. I love physical books – the smell, the feel, the history, the experience. But, I can also see the value of digital books, particularly as I become more and more appreciative of the benefits of adjusting font size lol! But also because of the other advantages of e-books – portability, immediate access, and reduced costs. These savings are even more significant when the digital books are open educational resources. I have had several experiences building OER in Pressbooks.
One significant example is Teaching without Walls at TRU: a practical guide with tools, tips, and techniques. In the summer of 2020, as we prepared for most of campus to provide instruction remotely for the academic year, my colleague Michelle Harrison and I adapted Remote teaching: a practical guide with tools, tips, and techniques, an OER by Alison Flynn and Jeremy Kerr from the University of Ottawa, to make a resource that was more specific to our context at TRU. We wanted this resource to be available offline so instructors wouldn’t be bound to their computer for access.
I learned a lot about building in Pressbooks and adapting content through this experience and recently learned that portions have been used in other contexts so am pleased with the result.
I was also involved in the development of Histories of Indigenous Peoples and Canada but must credit John Belshaw and Corey Stumpf with the technical efforts here.
I’ve recently been making organizational tweaks to an introductory biology text in Pressbooks but unfortunately it isn’t ready for public view quite yet. I’m sure I’ll be involved in further Pressbooks adventures in the coming years.
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