Pressbooks is a platform for editing, adopting, adapting, creating, and publishing open access online books. It's widely used at higher education institutions across the U.S. and internationally.
Whether or not you have a Pressbooks account, you can assign a textbook from the Pressbooks Directory in your course. With UMD's new Pressbooks subscription, you can adapt, remix, and publish your own books, too. Explore your options and find support below.
It's easy to link chapters from an existing Pressbook in a course. You'll just need to have a Teacher, Teaching Assistant (TA), Designer, or Support role on an ELMS/Canvas course.
There are two ways to add Pressbooks content/chapters to your course:
If you locate a public book from the Pressbooks Directory that you'd like to assign, you can link to individual chapters as external URLs within Canvas just like you would when linking to any other website.
You can also embed Pressbooks chapters so that students can read content directly within the Canvas module instead of clicking out to an external website.
An individual Pressbooks account is required to embed content in a Canvas course. Please contact us so we can create one for you.
You can request an account for UMD's new Pressbooks subscription so you can adapt or remix existing Pressbooks, or create and publish your own open textbook from scratch.
While there are other tools and platforms that can be used for this purpose, Pressbooks has some distinct advantages that may benefit your particular project:
If you're interested, please contact us to schedule an appointment. We can discuss your project needs, set you up with a Pressbooks account, and provide basic training for the platform.
Q: I tried to embed Pressbooks content in my course. In Canvas, I went to Modules > Add Item > External Tool > Pressbooks: UMD Pressbooks Site. But then I got this error message: No content selected. Please ensure you belong to one or more books on your Pressbooks network with the book user role of Administrator, Editor, or Author. If you expect to have this user role in a book but the book does not appear for selection here, please contact your network manager.
A: You will need a temporary Pressbooks account in order to embed content in your course. Please contact us for assistance.
Q: How do I embed Pressbooks chapters in an ELMS/Canvas blueprint (template) course so that they show up in multiple sections?
A: The person in your department who is setting up the template course in ELMS/Canvas needs to contact us to get a temporary Pressbooks account before any copies of the course are made. Once the Pressbooks content is added to the template, all students and instructors with access to a course section in Canvas will be able to view it.
Q: Can I assign a Pressbook that includes interactive H5P content?
A: Yes, you can! Note that Pressbooks H5P activities cannot be connected to the ELMS/Canvas gradebook. However, you can still assign content that includes H5P self-assessments, like a "knowledge check" quiz or other individual activity.
