External Examples
Inspiring examples of open textbooks in
Pressbooks
Pressbooks regularly showcases a selection of the growing number of books indexed in the Pressbooks Directory. The Pressbooks Directory indexed over 4900 books in 2022, which by 2025 increased to over 8000. Amongst the hundreds of institutions and publishers appearing in the directory, we began indexing a selection of Concordia University Library‘s open textbooks and guidebooks in 2025. Pressbooks has maintained a running blog of monthly highlights from its directory, as exemplified in “Pressbooks Community Favourites 2022” as well as “A Year of Open Content: Reviewing the Pressbooks Books of the Month.” This chapter uses visuals to describe the external examples that stand out to our OER Team. Some aspects that make these texts stand out are collaborative peer and student co-authoring, interactivity, accessibility, equity, and inclusion.
Career and Workforce Readiness
This book focuses on work-integrated learning, which allows learners to hone their work-related skills. The book provides various opportunities for reflection, practicing concepts and exporting work. Users can download portfolio activities. They can further organize and catalogue their documents in a downloadable portfolio.
Interactive Video
Book Showcase 1: Overview of Career and Workforce Readiness by Careerspace – Trent University, 2022, CC BY-NC 4.0.
Image Slider
Book Showcase 1: Reflection exercises in Career and Workforce Readiness by Careerspace – Trent University, 2022, CC BY-NC 4.0.
Liberated Learners: How to Learn with Style
Co-designed by students, faculty and staff, this book is a fine example of student co-authorship, interactivity, as well as equity and inclusion. Winner of the 2022 Open Education Global Award for Best OER, Liberated Learners equips students to learn proactively in the digital sphere. Besides its user-friendly features, the book also supports bilingual (English/French) and accessible learning through downloadable resources.
Interactive Video
Book Showcase 2: Overview of Liberated Learners by Terry Greene et al., 2022, CC BY-NC 4.0.
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Book Showcase 2: Reflection exercises in Liberated Learners by Terry Greene et al., 2022, CC BY-NC 4.0.
The Languages of Berkeley: An Online Exhibition
This exhibition catalogue and library exhibit take the form of a digital book with Pressbooks used as the platform.
Interactive Video
Book Showcase 3: Overview of The Languages of Berkeley: An Online Exhibition by individual contributors of this online library exhibition, 2021, CC BY-NC 4.0.
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Book Showcase 3: Reflection exercise in The Languages of Berkeley: An Online Exhibition by individual contributors of this online library exhibition, 2021, CC BY-NC 4.0.
