LibGuides: Open Educational Resources Incentive Program: What Kind of Textbook Content Can I Create in Pressbooks?

What is Pressbooks?

Pressbooks is open source book production software developed as a plugin for WordPress multisite installations. Users of WordPress will find aspects familiar, although there are also substantial changes to the front and back end to focus on production of book content.

Publications in Pressbooks follow typical book chapter-by-chapter formats. However, the chapters can integrate multimedia-content in addition to static images, and they can integrate H5P content (interactive self-assessments commonly used in open textbooks).

Pressbooks is the option for production of open textbooks supported for publication through the library through this grant under the first option listed in the CFP.

Examples of Textbooks in Pressbooks

OPN Textbooks Series at IOPN
The OPN Textbooks series is published under the Windsor & Downs Press imprint of the Illinois Open Publishing Network, the University of Illinois Library's press. Titles are published in Pressbooks.
Pressbooks Directory
Pressbooks maintains this directory of titles published on different installations of pressbooks. Most of these are textbooks and use a wide variety of features. The directory allows searching by subject area so you can see how Pressbooks might present specialized content in your field such as math equations using LaTeX.

Types of Content You Can Present in Pressbooks

Pressbooks can present the following content types:

Text with tables
Breakout text boxes for specialized content types as commonly used in textbooks
Equations (using LaTeX)
Images
Multimedia (audio, video)
H5P interactive self-assessments (Pressbooks does not record student data although some types allow students to export their responses)