UEN Digital Press with Pressbooks
Utah OER & Pressbooks Community
The Utah OER & Pressbooks Community is open to all faculty and staff at each of Utah's higher education institutions. We're librarians, professors, tech specialists, program directors, and OER advocates, and our community of practice aims to create opportunities to share OER resources and develop digital publishing expertise. Most importantly, though, we're a welcoming group—we would love for you to join us. Subscribe to our mailing list or join one of our meet-ups. We look forward to hearing from you.
Beginning in January, the Utah OER & Pressbooks Community will team up with the Utah Academic Library Consortium to facilitate monthly OER workshops. Monthly workshops will be presented by faculty members from Utah's higher education institutions and will include ideas for implementing OER successfully alongside tips for utilizing Pressbooks in your work. Check back soon for more details.
Past Meetings
End-of-Year Updates & Check-In
November 13, 2024 | 10:00 - 10:45 am
During this meet-up, Braxton shared a tentative timeline for UEN’s upcoming RFP for publishing software (Pressbooks). Donna Ziegenfuss (University of Utah) discussed UALC’s transition from an annual OER symposium to monthly OER workshops. UALC and UEN are collaborating to develop the workshop series and will share more information at the beginning of the calendar year. The call ended with OER updates from institutions throughout the state.
For a copy of the meeting recording, please reach out to Braxton Thornley at braxton@uen.org.
H5P Activities & Pressbooks Results
September 11, 2024 | 10:00 - 10:45 am
During this meet-up, John McLeod from Pressbooks led a walkthrough of the new Results LTI. John demonstrated how instructors can add Pressbooks chapters to their Canvas courses and facilitate grade passback between the H5P activities in their Pressbooks books and their Canvas gradebooks. John shared links to the instructor guide for the Results LTI and a list of gradable H5P activities. Braxton confirmed that the Results plug-in has been added to the UEN Pressbooks network and that most higher ed institutions have installed the LTI to their Canvas instances. The call ended with OER updates from institutions throughout the state.
- Updates and announcements:
- Results pilot underway
- Using the new Results LTI with Canvas
- Product walkthrough with John McLeod
- OER highlights, updates, and questions from individual institutions and organizations
For a copy of the meeting recording, please reach out to Braxton Thornley at braxton@uen.org.
Collaboration within Pressbooks
July 10, 2024 | 10:00 - 10:45 am
During this meet-up, Braxton demonstrated the new network update in Pressbooks that organizes users and books by institution. John McLeod from Pressbooks then shared additional details about the Pressbooks Results update and confirmed that grade passback between Pressbooks and Canvas should be available by the fall semester. Braxton demonstrated multiple options for adding users to books in Pressbooks before those on the call shared OER updates from their respective institutions.
- Updates and announcements:
- Institutions added to the network
- Results plug-in and LTI available before the fall semester
- Facilitating collaboration in Pressbooks:
- User roles within Pressbooks
- Adding users to books
- Adjusting chapter “owners” within a book
- Adding users to books where some collaborators are outside of the UEN network
- OER highlights, updates, and questions from individual institutions and organizations
For a copy of the meeting recording, please reach out to Braxton Thornley at braxton@uen.org.
Updates to Consortial Networks in Pressbooks
May 8, 2024 | 10:00 - 10:45 am
During this meet-up, Braxton provided a brief overview of how institutions will be delineated in UEN’s Pressbooks network moving forward. John McLeod of Pressbooks then showed a demo of what the network updates will look like once they take effect in June. The second half of the call was dedicated to sharing OER updates from institutions throughout the state.
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Braxton Thornley (UEN) on updates to the organization of consortial networks in Pressbooks
- Differentiation between network and institutional admins
- Institutional analytics and control
- John McLeod (Pressbooks) on navigating the updates in Pressbooks
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OER highlights, updates, and questions from individual institutions and organizations
- USU’s Empower Teaching Open Access Book Series
- Recently Published: Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions
- Accepting Chapter Proposals: Open Educational Resources for and as Assessment
- USU’s Empower Teaching Open Access Book Series
For a copy of the meeting recording, please reach out to Braxton Thornley at braxton@uen.org.
Adapting OER for Diverse Learner Needs
March 13, 2024 | 10:00 - 10:45 am
During this meet-up, Braxton provided a brief overview of the upcoming Teach and Learn with Open Education Resources virtual symposium. John McLeod of Pressbooks then shared how to adapt existing OERs to meet specific course or instructional needs, and he shared a number of resources for creating accessible Pressbooks and OERs more generally (slide eight in his presentation).
- Teach and Learn with Open Education Resources virtual symposium:
- Keynote speaker (Gerry Hanley)
- Sessions and session types
- Today’s conversation as a condensed version of a longer session during the symposium
- John McLeod (Pressbooks) on adapting OER for diverse learner needs
- OER highlights, updates, and questions from individual institutions and organizations
For a copy of the meeting recording, please reach out to Braxton Thornley at braxton@uen.org.
OER & Tenure
January 10, 2024 | 10:00 - 10:45 am
During this meet-up, Dr. Kathy Essmiller of Oklahoma State University shared how she has used departments’ RPT documents to find “shared vocabulary” between their promotion requirements and faculty members’ work in OER. Dr. Essmiller also shared Marjon Baas’s dissertation as a guide for using OER and a sample letter, typically signed by the dean of the library, that a faculty member might use in their dossier.
- Introduction of Guests:
- Kathy Essmiller (Oklahoma State University)
- John McLeod (Pressbooks)
- Amy Song (Pressbooks)
- Kathy Essmiller on OER & RPT
- OER Highlights, Updates, and Questions from Individual Institutions and Organizations
For a copy of the meeting recording, please reach out to Braxton Thornley at braxton@uen.org.