Pressbooks is a widely-used platform for editing, adopting, adapting, creating, and publishing open access online books.
Whether or not you have a Pressbooks account, you can assign a book from the Pressbooks Directory in your course.
With UMD's new Pressbooks subscription, you can also now adapt, remix, and publish your own textbooks, too!
Some benefits of Pressbooks:
Any instructor with a UMD ELMS/Canvas account can link to a Pressbooks textbook in their course, and there are two ways to do this.
Whether or not you have a Pressbooks account, you can assign a public book from the Pressbooks Directory in your course. These are freely published online, so you can link to individual chapters as external URLs within Canvas just like you would when linking to any other website. View instructions on the Canvas support site.
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. This requires a Pressbooks account.
Please contact us for support with embedding. We'll make you a temporary Pressbooks account so you can copy content to your Canvas course.
With UMD's new Pressbooks subscription, you can adapt, remix, and publish your own open textbooks, too!
If you're interested, please contact us to schedule an appointment. We can determine whether Pressbooks is a good fit for your project, set you up with an 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.
