Pressbooks as a ‘Platform’
A Vision for the future of OER Creation
10.13.17 | Open Education Conference
Steel Wagstaff, UW-Madison
Hugh McGuire, Founder of Pressbooks & Rebus Foundation
Sharing, Gratitude, Hope
Circular giving differs from reciprocal giving in several ways… When I give to someone from whom I do not receive (and yet I do receive elsewhere), it is as if the gift goes around a corner before it comes back. I have to give blindly. And I will feel a sort of blind gratitude as well.
The smaller the circle is … the more a man can keep his eye on things and the more he will think like a salesman. But so long as the gift passes out of sight it cannot be manipulated by one man or one pair of gift partners. When the gift moves in a circle its motion is beyond the control of the personal ego, and so each bearer must be a part of the group and each donation is an act of social faith.
— Lewis Hyde, The Gift
Sharing, Gratitude, Hope
Our fixation on [OER] discovery and assembly distracts us from other serious platform needs – like platforms for the collaborative development of OER and open assessments, where faculty and students can work together to create and update the core materials that support learning in our institutions.
… If the OER community doesn’t … start providing and promoting viable alternatives to publishers’ platforms, the best possible future for OER is being locked down inside a Pearson MyLab playing second fiddle to proprietary content.
— David Wiley, “Of OER and Platforms: Five Years Later,” January 24, 2017
What is a Pressbook?
All published books exist as standalone web texts featuring landing page with:
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Portuguese language textbook published at UW-Madison
Using Pressbooks
TOP RIGHT: Pressbooks uses a standard WordPress WYSIWYG editor. Editing texts and inserting media as easy as using a word processor. Collaborators can work together on the same text with different roles & permissions.
BOTTOM RIGHT: Pressbooks features a drag-and-drop chapter organization interface. Lets you create front & back matter, as well as two-level ‘part’ & ‘chapter’ organization for main content.
Pressbooks Development Roadmap
2017 roadmap: https://pressbooks.org/roadmap/roadmap-2017/ �Major accomplishments:
Newly released roadmap for 2018: https://pressbooks.org/roadmap �Year of the author! What’s planned:
Authoring Tool Wishlist
What we’re working on
Interactive Content
via H5P plugin
Three examples of H5P activities in Pressbooks: �1. True/False type question set [top left], 2. Fill in the blank activity [bottom left], 3. drag and drop [right]
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Collaborative Annotation
via Hypothes.is plugin
At left: Pressbooks page with H5P activity and rich annotations
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Integrating with an LMS
via Thin Common Cartridge and LTI plugins
Import into an LMS
Thin Common Cartridges [IMS Global standard] consist of an XML manifest file and pointers to a number of structured resources. A Thin CC for a Pressbooks book will include discrete links for each of the book’s parts & chapters [top right].
If LTI links are used, content can load in an iFrame as though it were native to the LMS [a Pressbook in Canvas, bottom right].
We’re currently using a fork of Lumen Learning’s plugin for producing Thin CCs. We want to make Thin CC exports part of core Pressbooks.
Configure LTI Integration in LMS
We’ve also forked Lumen’s LTI plugin, which lets us launch content securely and pass grades for specific activities back to the LMS gradebook. The example shown at left uses Canvas.
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Pressbooks Editing Environment
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Sample Interactive Reading Activity
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Gathering Learning Analytics
via xAPI plugin and Learning Locker Learning Record Store
How system connects
Authoring Tool [Pressbooks + H5P + Hypothes.is ]
xAPI statements [via H5P xAPI plugin]
Learning Record Store [Learning Locker]
Learning Management System [Canvas]
Content and Grades [via LTI plugin]
Goals for Learning Analytics
We’re trying to make well-designed learning objects, but we have lots of questions:
Learning Locker Learning Record Store
List of xAPI Statements
Sample xAPI Statement
xAPI statements are JSON ‘triples’ which must follow this basic pattern: [ACTOR] [VERB] [OBJECT] and can include additional contextual information.
This statement is an “answered” statement from a “Fill in the missing words” H5P activity.
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Sample xAPI Statement, Cont
Additional “context” can often be quite useful.
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Learning Locker ‘Reports’
Several custom reports can be configured to correspond to some subset of all statements stored in the LRS.
You can also see a graph and full list of statements for each ‘report’
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Learning Locker ‘Exports’
Custom export routines can be configured for exporting pieces of the xAPI statements (as CSV or JSON files) for one or more reports.
You can customize which pieces of the xAPI JSON statement are included in the report.
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Future Goals
Questions?
What do you want to know?