Campus Manitoba and the Manitoba Open Education Initiative are pleased to announce that a PressbooksEDU network has been established for Campus Manitoba’s partner institutions, and will be piloted for the 2021-2022 academic year.

Pressbooks is a Canadian company that supports new, contemporary, and accessible models for book publishing, with an emphasis on helping make educational resources more accessible to all. Through a variety of Pressbooks instances, authors from all walks of life — including academia — can more easily adapt or create teaching and learning materials under the full range of Creative Commons licenses.

Resources published using Pressbooks exist in a wide range of file formats, from the hard-copy printed book to an e-book that is viewable on a screen reader or mobile device. They can also be layered with interactive content, multiple media types, and integrated into multiple Learning Management Systems (LMS), like Moodle, Blackboard, and D2L. The result is a fully immersive, engaging teaching and learning experience for our primarily digital age. PressbooksEDU is a customizable network option, which will allow for a ‘Made in Manitoba’ curation of resources, special branding, and increased functionality.

“Individual and collaborative OER projects have persisted and emerged through this very challenging time: a testament to how faculty and staff across Manitoba are recognizing the benefits that open education offers to both teachers and learners,” said Kim Grenier Mintenko, Executive Director of Campus Manitoba. “To date we’ve been supporting textbook adaptations on a cost-per-use basis with Pressbooks. Now, we are elevating our support for open publishing in Manitoba. The PressbooksEDU Pilot Network allows CMB to extend its support to more authors, giving them access to an enhanced set of tools. We look forward to working with our partners to take this exciting next step in increasing access to education.”

The Pilot Network will involve 10 OER creations or customizations through the 21-22 academic year. A call for proposals aimed at identifying projects at each of Campus Manitoba’s partner institutions will be open from September 14 – October 15. Subscribe to the Campus Manitoba newsletter to stay up to date.