Affordable & Open Educational Resources (A&OER)

Bookdown

Bookdown is an open source R package that structures book writing and workflow. Those who want to create statistics and programming textbooks may find it a useful fit.

GitBook

GitBook is an online platform to create and host books. It can output your content as a website or as an ebook (PDF, ePub or Mobi). Hosting is free if the book is open. GitHub users will likely feel most comfortable with GitBooks. 

Ketty

Ketty is an open source platform for building and customizing streamlined, scalable professional book production workflows using rich web-based tools. The Open Education Network is currently piloting Ketty. Contact open@umn.edu for more information. 

LaTeX

LaTeX is a typesetting system designed for making technical and scientific documents, and is available as free software. Authors who write textbooks that include formulas frequently select LaTeX. 

LibreTexts

LibreTexts is an open education resource platform for creating, customizing, and sharing accessible, interactive textbooks, adaptive homework, and ancillary materials. 

Manifold

Manifold works with the files you've created (Microsoft Word, Google Docs, HTML and others) and converts that existing content into responsive online texts that can be annotated and augmented with rich media. The Open Education Network is currently piloting an instance of Manifold.

Pressbooks

Pressbooks is a publishing platform educators used to create, adapt, and share accessible, interactive, web-first books. It's built on WordPress, so anyone familiar with using WordPress and a WYSIWYG may be comfortable using this tool.

Pressbooks offers a discount to OEN member institutions. STLCC is an OEN member.

Publishing platforms and tools that are frequently leveraged for open textbook production are highlighted above. For a more comprehensive look, see these in-depth overviews:

• Finding the Right Publishing Platform from the Library Publishing Coalition
• Mind the Gap: A Landscape Analysis of Open Source Publishing Tools and Platforms from MIT Press
• OER Tools: Documentation for Instructors from Abbey Elder at Iowa State University

Authors usually select an authoring tool based on experience and comfort. For example, many writers use Microsoft Word because they know it well and their institution provides them with it. Google Docs & MS Word are arguably the two most popular authoring tools for writing textbooks.

• Google Docs is free and online. It allows for multiple authors and editing, which can work well for groups writing together. Collaborators can @ each other with comments, make suggestions and track revisions. You can also upload existing files to Google Docs, and export to both PDF and EPUB.
• Microsoft Word, a part of Microsoft 365, is a tool available to all STLCC students, staff and faculty. Microsoft 365 provides the same collaborative aspects as Google Docs.

Adapted from Authoring Tools in Authoring Open Textbooks and the Pub101 Course by Open Education Network (CC BY 4.0)