Connecting Pressbooks with Canvas

The Future of Open Publishing @ UW-Madison

Steel Wagstaff, Instructional Technology Consultant, UW-Madison

OSU Distance Education Meeting

Columbus, OH | November 17^th

OUTLINE

Slides posted to Twitter this morning: @SteelWagstaff

1. Sample UW Open Texts
2. The Future of Open Textbook Publishing

1. Sample UW Open Texts

Português para principiantes

An online edition of Claude E. Leroy’s Português Para Principiantes, a Brazilian Portuguese language textbook first published by UW Extension in 1964 and last revised in 1993.

• Used by 100s of students this past year
• 30+ lessons, 30 dialogues, several cultural ‘spotlights’ and brief passages of literature
• Integrated audio dialogues and vocabulary
• Interactive H5P components

Cover design by Steel Wagstaff. All images used under CC BY licenses.

Process of Science Companion

An online edition of a series of supplementary material developed by the Biocore (honors biology) program for undergraduates. Will comprise several volumes, including a writing guide, lab manual, & statistics primer.

• Offers basic training in scientific fundamentals
• Gives program-specific guidance on writing
• Offers interactive tutorials on statistical literacy (training in Excel and R) using Plot.ly.

Sample image from the Statistics primer (in progress)

Anatomy Textbook Projects

A series of interactive anatomy textbooks for medical students training to be doctors, nurses, and physician assistants.

• Includes detailed anatomical images, gifs, and videos (to demonstrate range of motion)
• Includes several knowledge check interactive activities [via H5P]
• Will include glossary and annotation features

Sample image from the “Skin” chapter of one of the anatomy books in production.

Creators, Collectors & Communities

Student-authored text written over two semesters to accompany the inaugural exhibit of a new historical museum opening in a nearby town.

• Includes images, descriptions of 50 objects, audio (oral histories) and other multimedia
• Also features detailed object studies (research papers written by students)

Frank Lloyd Wright and His Madison Buildings

Student-authored text written to serve as textbook for future versions of the class (which may not have same direct access to the buildings featured in the text)

• Features detailed descriptions of FLW-designed buildings in the Madison area & their architectural histories.
• Includes images, audio (oral histories) and other multimedia

Public Domain Anthologies / Course Readers

The chair of our poli sci department is publishing anthologies for undergrad & grad seminars made with excerpts from primary texts in the public domain.

• The prof invites students to annotate and contribute to a shared understanding of assigned texts.
• Image at right taken from Political Theory of the American Revolution, a text comprised of classic political texts from the Revolutionary War period.

Chemistry Open Stax Adoption

Chemistry department is redesigning curriculum to focus on increasing active learning in introductory, ‘large lecture’ courses. Currently using Pressbooks to revise/adapt the OpenStax Chemistry textbook.

• Pressbooks now has a ‘cloning’ feature which lets you quickly copy books. Import took less than 5 minutes.
• All content can be edited as desired (at the sentence level). Chapters can be reordered, omitted, etc., and new content and learning activities can be added.
• Ohio State leading an effort to produce large, open, peer-reviewed question banks.

OpenStax Chemistry text in Pressbooks

2. The Future of Open Textbook Publishing

Pressbooks Development Roadmap

Pressbooks Development Roadmap

Major accomplishments in 2017:

• Core improvements + work on metadata, theming, & accessibility.
• API for books! Book cloning! See roadmap for full list: https://pressbooks.org/roadmap/roadmap-2017/

New 2018 [Year of the Author!] roadmap: https://pressbooks.org/roadmap

• Editing and content improvements
• Improved accessibility
• Import & Export enhancements
• User interface & theming

Our Authoring Tool Wishlist

1. Easy to use
2. Collaborative, with version control
3. Standards-based, device & platform agnostic, compliant with Federal accessibility law and local policies
4. Permits open licensing, exports to multiple formats, gives readers durable access
5. Can include multimedia, annotation, & interactive learning activities [e.g. ?s with personalized feedback]
6. Works alone or inside a LMS. When used with LMS, has assessment and analytic capabilities.

What we’re working on

Interactive Content

via H5P plugin

Four examples of H5P activities in Pressbooks: �1. True/False type question set, 2. Fill in the blank activity, �3. Find multiple hotspots, 5. Interactive video (with drag & drop)

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Collaborative Annotation

via Hypothesis plugin

At left: Pressbooks page with H5P activity and rich annotations

1. Multi-part quiz [H5P]
2. Image in annotation layer
3. Video in annotation
4. Annotation with external link
5. Embedded audio in annotation
6. Edit, delete, reply, share buttons for each annotation

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Integrating with Canvas

via Thin Common Cartridge and LTI plugins

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How system connects

Authoring/Publishing Tool [Pressbooks + H5P + Hypothes.is ]

xAPI statements [H5P xAPI plugin]

Learning Record Store [Learning Locker]

Learning Management System [Canvas]

Content and Grades [via LTI plugin]

Import into Canvas

We export our books as Thin Common Cartridges, which consist of an XML manifest & pointers to several structured resources (in this case, LTI links).

A Thin CC for a Pressbooks book includes discrete LTI links for each of the book’s parts & chapters [top right].

Content loads in an iFrame as though it were native to Canvas [bottom right].

Sample Interactive Reading Activity

1. Annotated text (yellow highlights)
2. Glossary term (blue link w/ tooltip)
3. Audio & video
4. Annotation layer (uses Hypothes.is)
5. H5P activity in annotation pane

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Using Learning Analytics

via xAPI plugin and Learning Locker Learning Record Store

Goals for Learning Analytics

We’re trying to make well-designed learning objects, but we have lots of questions:

• When a learner accesses one of our books, what do they do? In what order?
• How do they engage with the embedded media?
• How do they interact with the annotation layer (i.e. do they read annotations, do they respond to others’ questions, do they post their own)?
• Do they engage with the interactive H5P activities embedded throughout? If so, which questions do most learners get right/wrong?

Learning Locker Learning Record Store

• Open source Learning Record Store
• Records xAPI statements
• Customizable Reports and CSV or JSON data exports

List of xAPI Statements

Sample xAPI Statement

xAPI statements are JSON ‘triples’ which must follow this basic pattern: [ACTOR] + [VERB] + [OBJECT] and can include extra contextual information.

This statement is an “answered” statement from a “Fill in the missing words” H5P activity.

1. Actor
2. Verb
3. Object
4. Description of the activity and the correct answers
5. “Context” section. More detail on next slide.

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Sample xAPI Statement, Cont

Additional “context” can often be quite useful.

• Parent activity
• ‘Grouping’ information
• Result information. Can include a score value, the response, and completion state information

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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.

• List of existing reports.

You can also see a graph and full list of statements for each ‘report’

• ‘Graph’ for a sample report “Completed Piece of Jan’s activity”
• Statements button: allows you to view only those statements which satisfy the conditions set in the 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.

• List of existing ‘exports’.

You can customize which pieces of the xAPI JSON statement are included in the report.

• Option for selecting which ‘report’ you want to run the export on.
• List of xAPI fields you want to include in the report and the ‘field name’ you want to give them.

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xAPI / LTI plug-in

What’s working well

• xAPI statements are being sent to Learning Locker from Pressbooks
• Assignments are being created in Canvas and launched as external LTI
• Grades are being sent to Canvas via LTI Tool as % correct (0-1)

What needs work

• One large LRS with all data. Need to partition & limit access for instructors.
• Haven’t yet built real-time vizzes of learner activity like we had in Moodle.
• Want to improve grade reporting processes/capabilities.
• Only working with xAPI statements right now. Want to use Caliper 1.1

Questions?

email: swagstaff@wisc.edu