Open Educational Resources (OER)
Using OER can be as simple as finding a useful textbook and, as you would with any other textbook, including it or including chapters from it in your Reading List or Blackboard.
As an instructor, you may want to make changes to the resource to suit your needs. This is one of the great advantages of OER: the open licensing enables you to do exactly that.
At NUI Galway, we have purchased a subscription to Pressbooks, which is a very powerful piece of software that enables instructors to adapt, remix, or write up open textbooks from scratch.
Getting started with NUI Galway Open Press
Getting started with Open Press using Pressbooks
There is a lot you can do with Pressbooks, but getting started is quite simple.
Step 1: Navigate to the NUI Galway Open Press homepage. You will be directed to the NUI Galway institutional login. Input your usual details (staff/student ID and password). You will then come back to the NUI Galway Open Press homepage, where you will now click on 'My Books' in the upper right-hand corner.
Step 2: Once logged in you will come to the following page. Click 'My Books' then 'Create a New Book'.
Step 3: You will then come to the following screen, where you can choose a book title and URL. Remember, you can always change a book title, but you cannot change the URL, so choose carefully. Once you have chosen, click 'Create Book'.
Step 4: Congratulations, you've created your book! Now click into the Introduction, and get writing!
