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OPEN FL: OER Publishing Program

Guide for the open and affordable learning community of Florida, OPEN FL.

OpenFL Publishing Program

OER Publishing in Florida

OpenFL has embarked on a program of Open Textbook Publishing using three different platforms, Pressbooks, Libretexts, and Manifold. This program is open to faculty from all 40 public institutions in Florida, simply by submitting the Open FL Open Educational Resources Author Publishing Application. There is limited space for Pressbooks projects, but Libretexts and Manifold both have unlimited project spaces. OpenFL is particularly interested in fostering cross-institution collaboration.

Scope of the FLVC OER Publishing Program

FLVC is providing the platforms for publishing free of charge, as well as basic tech support for those platforms, including assistance with content uploading. However, FLVC does not provide editing services, accessibility checks, peer review, content license checks, or anything of that nature. Some of these services you may be able to find in your home institution's OER program, or by contacting your institution's library services. Otherwise, in the Faculty section below are resources for where to find those services for a cost. FLVC is also not providing at this time any grant or other types of funding for projects beyond the base cost of hosting the project.

Available Publishing Platforms

  • LibreTexts
    • A Part of the Libreverse which is a suite of technologies designed on opensource software to facilitate the creation of Open Educational Resources, from text-books to homework and more. Libreverse was developed in 2008 at UC Davis by Delmar Larsen, the current director of the project. Libretexts is the textbook publishing arm of the Libreverse
  • Pressbooks
    • An OpenSource book content management system that allows users to publish books openly in a variety of formats. It is built using WordPress technologies and has been released under a GPL v3.0 license.
  • Manifold
    • Manifold is an open source publishing software created by the CUNY Graduate Center, The University of Minnesota Press, and Cast Iron Coding. FLVC uses Manifold under the Open Education Network's Manifold project.

For further information about each platform, see the boxes below with links and helpful resources for each. Below is also a comparison chart comparing the capabilities of each platform to help guide you in deciding which platform is best for your project.

  Libreverse Manifold Pressbooks
Source Code Not open, but built on
open source
Open source Open source based, with
additional code
H5P H5p integrated External hosting of H5p
required
H5p integrated
Book Limit Unlimited books Unlimited books Book limitation
Cloning No clones allowed, but does
have remix
Clones allowed. Not easy to
copy
Clones allowed. Easy to copy
Authoring Collaborative author
building (only)
Select authors permitted Collaborative author building
or select authors permitted
Content Type Interactive textbook
or full course
Textbook Interactive textbook
Catalog/Display National, state, and
institution libraries
Single book National, state, and
institution libraries
Management Project management
at institution level
Title-by-title management Project management at
state level
Quiz Bank Shared question bank External hosting required
for quiz bank
Shareable quiz bank by title
File Uploading Easy import from
various file formats
Some import options Easy import from
various file formats

 

For Faculty

How to get started as an author of a project in the OpenFL Publishing Program

  1. Request: Reach out to your institution's OpenFL Publishing liaison (see the Liaison's tab to find out who to reach out to) to discuss your proposed project.
  2. Apply: With the help of your liaison, fill out the online application at flvc.org/publish-app for approval of each project
  3. Decide on a Platform: Choose which platform will work the best for your envisioned project
  4. Train: Explore the training for your chosen platform to learn how to use the platform most effectively, and have your liaison reach out to the FLVC Help Desk via help@flvc.org to gain access to the FLVC platform of your choice
  5. Create!
  • Florida State College at Jacksonville
    • Shannon Dew shannon.dew@fscj.edu
  • Pasco Hernando State College
    • Ingrid Purrenhage purreni@phsc.edu
  • University of West Florida
    • Cindy Gruwell cgruwell@uwf.edu
    • Chris Levesque clevesque@uwf.edu

Libretexts

See above for how to include material from other books into your project.

Pressbooks

Manifold

Skip to 18:18-33:52 for a basic overview of how to use Manifold projects, such as how to do annotations, how to use reading groups, etc.

Open FL  is particularly interested in projects from teams comprised of authors from different institutions around Florida (or even outside of Florida, but the host institution must be a Florida State College or State University system institution). If you have collaborators in mind, be sure to tell your institutional liaison and let FLVC know to add all your collaborators as users on your chosen platform.

However, if you have an idea you would like collaborators on but have no contacts at other institutions for it, let FLVC know! We can help pair authors with similar project ideas who are interested in collaborating.

Below are resources for hiring content services or for learning to do them yourself, for such things as editing, proofreading, license checking, accessibility checking, and other necessary jobs to make sure your OER project upholds proper standards.

For Institutional Liaisons

How to Get Your Institution Started With the OpenFL Publishing Program

  1. Request: Email help@flvc.org to request to join the OpenFL Publishing Services Program
  2. Name a Contact: Designate a minimum of one person as a point of contact for coordinating publishing activities with FLVC
  3. Sign the Agreement: Have your institution sign the Institutional Agreement for Pressbooks projects
  4. Spread the Word: Spread the word about the publishing program opportunity to your institution's faculty!

Libretexts

Pressbooks

Skip to 17:03 – 21:46 for Pressbooks Directory discussion; cloning a book in PB Directory 21:49 – 23:42

Manifold

Skip to 6:07-18:13 for a discussion of ways to use Manifold