Eagle Pubs Policies

Last updated: 4/22/2022 – Approved: 5/5/2022 

 

Responsibilities of Users 

Hunt and Hazy Libraries provide PressbooksEDU as a platform to create high-quality, interactive, and accessible e-texts for their courses at no cost to students. The libraries can provide limited support for faculty who are authoring open educational resources (OER) in PressbooksEDU. 

Library support includes: 

  • Setup of your book in the Pressbooks platform. 
  • Basic how-to and technical support, including our Pressbooks Guide to address common questions and problems. 
  • Advise on tools available in Pressbooks that may be useful for your book. 
  • Advise on Creative Commons licensing and use of copyrighted materials, including cloning and modifying existing OER/Pressbooks material. 
  • Assistance in finding open materials to use or adapt for your project if needed. 
  • Archiving of supplemental materials, back up files, and static PDF versions of your book in Scholarly Commons. 
  • Assistance with metadata and accessibility features such as alt text for images. 
  • Provide 1 ISBN for the print PDF version, and 1 DOI (Digital Object Identifier) for the webbook.
    • Additional ISBNs are the responsibility of the author(s) or their department.
    • Chapter-level DOIs are available if funding allows.

Creators are responsible for: 

  • Content for the book, either through cloning an existing OER in Pressbooks, importing created content, or creating new content in the platform. 
  • This includes LaTeX notation for those who want to utilize complex mathematical notation. 
  • Subject-specific support and peer review for book. 
  • The libraries are unable to provide specialized student or librarian support specifically for your subject area.  
  • We strongly recommend recruiting a higher-level student within your department/discipline to help with subject matter support, especially for new books or complex projects. For grant-funded projects, this may be a requirement. 
  • Creation of support materials like H5P materials, and homework or example problems. 
  • Ongoing content updates to the materials. 

Selection Criteria and Limitations 

ERAU’s current PressbooksEDU platform supports a limited number of books and users. Due to this, we may not be able to provide space on the PressbooksEDU server for all requested projects. Projects may be denied or postponed due to the following factors: 

  • The project cannot be made openly available under a Creative Commons License. 
  • The project team is larger than the number of Pressbook user slots available. 
  • The project is not well suited to PressbooksEDU. For example, it is composed entirely of images, or relies on multimedia/software that is not compatible with the platform. 
  • The proposed timeline for the first release of the project is expected to be longer than 2 years.  
  • Due to limited capacity, projects that have limited impact for students may be postponed until more server space is available in PressbooksEDU. The number of students who will benefit from a project is considered the primary impact indicator. 

Contact your library to discuss alternative options for any projects that cannot be added to PressbooksEDU at this time. Many projects can be made freely available through Scholarly Commons in a limited format such as PDF, or another OER option may be more appropriate to the goals of the project. We can also provide guidance on the best way to prepare materials to be imported to Pressbooks in the future. 

Support for Projects 

PressbooksEDU is open to the whole university, and basic support is available for all projects. Additional project support, in particular financial compensation, will depend on specific campus resources and funding cycles. Grant-funded projects may have additional expectations based on the funder.  

Tools and Features Available

  • Import content from EPUB, Microsoft Word, OpenOffice, Pressbooks/Wordpress XML, or HTML/webpage formats. 
  • Clone existing OER textbooks in the Pressbooks Directory for modification. 
  • Supports LaTeX notation. 
  • H5P interactive activities. 
  • Hypothes.is annotation tool. 
  • Tablepress plugin for interactive data tables. 
  • Pressbooks Results (Limited availability). 
  • Embed images, video, and other multimedia. 
  • Built-in themes to provide a cohesive appearance. 
  • Built-in accessibility tools. 
  • Export into multiple formats, including Canvas Cartridges. 

Content 

The ERAU Pressbooks platform is intended for the creation of open educational materials for use in an ERAU course. Content should directly support course learning objectives with the intention of being primarily for student use. Please consider taking advantage of the interactive tools in Pressbooks for the optimal experience for your students.  

As an open resource, your content will be available to the wider educational community. We invite you to express yourself freely while also representing the mission and values of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.  

Copyright Policy 

In line with the University’s Invention and Works Policy (APPM 12.1.2), creators will retain the copyright to their webbook, along with any other resources created as part of their project. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University will be automatically granted a worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual, nonexclusive, royalty-free license to the materials to ensure students have continued access as needed. 

PressbooksEDU is an open educational resource creation platform. Due to this, authors are required to assign a Creative Commons license of their choice to the material for public use. Authors are responsible for confirming that all content in their webbook is either their copyright or cleared for use. 

Authors will be required to sign a publication contract outlining the general expectations for their project and confirming this copyright policy. 

Withdrawal & Editing Policy 

Once published, creators can continue making edits to their work. Ideally, the majority of editing will occur before the first publication.  

If a creator wishes to delete or unpublish a book, they can submit a withdrawal request through their respective campus’ Pressbooks contact. This will ensure that students still have access to materials they might need for courses. If the work was created through grant funding, creators should also communicate with grant funders their justification for withdrawal. If the creator leaves the university, the work will remain in Pressbooks with ERAU branding. 

Privacy Policy

For information on how data is collected and used, see the Privacy Policy.