This session looked at the opportunities for using ebooks in education. We provided an overview of the current ebook landscape, with a focus on looking at the benefits, implications of use and how to get started.
The recording and show notes are available at http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/surgery/session/getting-started-with-ebooks
Read our related article http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/guide/introduction-to-e-books
prashanth updated resume 2024 for Teaching Profession
Getting started with ebooks
1. Getting started with ebooks
#Hosted by Zak Mensah
Originally broadcast on 22nd Feb 2012
Session recording and resources below
http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/surgery/session/getting-started-with-ebooks
2.
3. Ways to access our help:
Helpdesk
Technical Advice Documents & Guides
Training
Online Surgery
Consultancy
4. House rules
• Use the chat window to ask questions
• Pop-up windows may need re-sizing
• Reminder - session is being recorded
5. Overview
What are ebooks?
e-books & e-learning:Trying to bring them together
e-books and e-resource discovery and promotion
Publishing ebooks
Q&A (10 mins)
10. Uses for e-books
• Academic text books
• Archiving a collection of material
• Collecting blog posts
• Self-publishing
• Marketing (e.g. prospectus)
• Research e.g. e-journals
11. Opportunities
• Access (delivery, time, accessibility)
• Support increased mobility
• Analytics of use
• Support a range of teaching activity
• Usability e.g. resize text
• Include multimedia (images, video and audio)
• interactivity (e.g. book links to wider resources)
• Annotation
14. Why aren’t students using E-Books? because they're too
expensive, maybe? Because you can't share them?
Because they don't exist for many textbooks
15. Audrey Watters writes,
"it does highlight the ways in which students’ needs
aren’t being met yet by digital content providers. That
means there’s still a huge opportunity here to reshape
what the textbooks of the future look like.
16. Openly licensed content, for example, could address
students’ concerns about sharing. Better social tools
Could help meet their needs for social reading and
learning.
Stephen Downes
http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=56588
18. e-books & e-learning
:Trying to bring them together
Andy Ramsden
The Elevate Team
http://a.ucs.ac.uk/elevate
elevate@ucs.ac.uk
19. A little context …
look through e-learning lens
building on work of others and over
time
work through some tasks to explore
the potential requirements for an e-
book >>> revisiting my Holy Grail
Developing a number of distance
learning courses.
Increasing uptake of media tablets
20. What looking for from the technology (Holy Grail)
Task
read recommended articles (instructor
controlled)
make notes (student controlled)
share my notes with other students
(student controlled)
read other peoples notes in context of
the article and mine (student controlled)
draw on my notes as part of my e-
portfolio
21. Workflow: iteration 1 …
ramsdenandy@Kindle.com
ramsdenandy_x@Kindle.com
Collect Emails
sharing does not scale … two devices gets annoying
22. Emerging approach (software tools)
Kindle iPad Andriod
But …. functionality does not seem consistent across devices … perhaps
not yet ready for my Holy Grail … ebooks are personal and not
collaborative
23. Thanks
Andy Ramsden
The Elevate Team
http://a.ucs.ac.uk/elevate
elevate@ucs.ac.uk
35. The Digital Monograph Technical Landscape study
(a.k.a. jiscPUB) was a six month thinktank set up by the
JISC in the first half of 2011 to explore the potential value
that the use of the ePUB specification could bring to the
Higher and Further Education sector if further adopted in
UK Universities.
http://jiscpub.blogs.edina.ac.uk/final-report/
36. Rich full-text semantic search tools for scholarly ebook
collections.
Tools for generating or traversing highly-specific stable
citations.
Plugins or add-ons to provide simple, ebook output for
popular word processing tools.
37. Improved workflows for authoring attractive, accessible,
standards-based mathematical notation in ebooks.
Development of an ereading system with an emphasis on
scholarly annotation and research-gathering.
Aggregate ebook services for authors and university
presses.
Maximize use of orphan works
38. How to reference
Author, Year, Title of book. [type of medium] Place of publication:
Publisher. Followed by Available through: include e-book
source/database, web address or URL [Accessed date].
Fishman, R., 2005. The rise and fall of suburbia. [e-book]
Chester: Castle Press. Available through:University of Bristol
Library website <http://libweb.bristol.ac.uk> [Accessed 5 June
2011].
Carlsen, J. and Charters, S., eds. 2007. Global wine tourism. [e
book] Wallingford: CABI Pub. Available through:University of
Bristol Library website <www.libweb.bristol.ac.uk> [Accessed 9
January 2012].
[script]JISC Digital Media is a JISC Advance service, which provides advice, guidance and training to the UK's Further and Higher Education community on the Creation, use, management and delivery of digital media resources, specifically still images, moving images and sound resourcesJISC Digital Media is hosted at the University of Bristol within the IT Services R+D section
[script]
[script]In order to help with the smooth running ofthe session please note the following:We will be speaking and showing examples throughout the session, please use the chat tool to ask us any questions or comments and we will either answer the question in the chat or try and incorporate the questions into the session. If you wish to get a specific persons attention please ‘@name’ them, for example, @zakOn occasions where we swap between presentation mode and examples, new windows may appear on screen, they may need resizing depending on how your screen is setup – video and audio examples that appear require you to play the content yourself as we cannot play/stop this type of content.We are recording the session and will put a copy on the website for archive purposes.
Image credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaredearle/5662543638/What are ebook and ebook readersAn electronic book is commonly referred to as an e-book, and is simply a print book in an electronic format. E-books can be produced in numerous formats that range from very basic text files to well structured, purpose built files that use one of the emerging standards for e-books such as the ePub and Adobe PDF standards As with print books, there are number of educational uses for e-books such as ‘reference’ or ‘narrative focused’.Academic booksTopics Fiction
(5 mins)Image credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/kodomut/5145996668/Interactivity Inclusion of multimedia
Available from http://prezi.com/mdloir1okj5u/making-the-invisible-invaluable/
Sue Burnett: editor and publisher for 25+ years Extensive experience in commercial and news sectors, but mainly education sector. Originally at Welsh Joint Education Committee (WJEC) working with with cross-curricular, computer-based content for schools. At University of Glamorgan for past 10 years, with emphasis on online/blended learning, and latterly managing the Glamorgan iTunes U content.
Publishing considerationsWHO is your intended audience? Eg• Specific group such as staff, students, potential students• General publicWHY are you publishing? (this can also influence editorial approach), eg• Share knowledge – to be altruistic! • Encourage the reader to take action in some way, eg sign up for a course. • Make money!WHAT do you intend to publish? (this drives production choices), eg• Text-only e-book • Enhanced e-book (images, audio, video) • Interactive iBook using iBooks Author — note; some restrictions on distributionWHEN should you release? Consider timing of release (may or may not be relevant), eg • In line with other award marketing efforts• To piggy-back on matters in public awareneSs, such as OlympicsWHERE will you publish? Distribution channels, eg• Closed VLE - Blackboard/Moodle• Website• Public/commercial platforms: Amazon, iTunes• Public/free platforms: iTunes, iTunes UHOW will you publish? These are the editorial & production matters…
Document management• Records identifying what/when you've released + new versions/revisions • Can help with setting up regular/scheduled review process, esp. for internal guidance materials• Internal publication – use unique reference number (URN) per item • External publication —- use ISBN (http://www.isbn.nielsenbook.co.uk/) — note: I recommend this is set up centrally for the institution
What format will you use? (this drives production choices)Whatever program you use - set up templates in output program to ensure consistency and improve efficiency of production Text-only e-book — ePub• Tip: Set up Word templates that can be used with simplify ebook conversion tools, eg Calibre (not used it myself, but seen it independently recommended) http://calibre-ebook.com/about• Numerous free/cheap programs for making ebooks eg Calibre, Pages• Design is not a great consideration, apart from headings, as font and size are often driven by choices made by the readeEnhanced e-book (images, audio, video) — ePub2• production, eg, with Pages, Quark XPress, InDesign, (iBooks Author)• If publishing regularly or producing a series, put effort into design & branding, and establish templates — these reinforce brand identity, provide consistency, give more efficient productionInteractive iBook• Apple iBooks Author — Free, but can only be used on Apple Macs using latest OS (Lion)• Can only be read/played on iPad• Some restrictions on distribution — If free, can share file, If paid for, MUST distribute it through iTunes/iBookstore• If sharing through iTunes U, can only publish within an iTunes U Course• You retain copyright on your *content* so no restrictions on using your content elsewhere, but not using output from iBooks Author or using iBooks Author templates
Copyright considerations• Author(s) — IP statement (optional) for prelims• 3rd-party content – ensure all is properly referenced/attributed throughout• Images & other media — use own or source wisely - JISC media ‘Advice’ section is excellent http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/ • Remember to assert your own copyright on prelims page
Prepare metadata (usually necessary for electronic distribution), eg• Title – unique and appropriate to ‘sell’ to potential readers• Author(s) / other contributors• Description (= ‘blurb’ on book covers)• Keywords (to aid searches)• iTunes U – tags (to create links to direct reader your other content)
General editing tipsEstablish a Style Guide• Ensures consistency — inconsistency can misdirect the reader and distract from the content• Saves time on decisionsEnsure your ebook is 'free standing', ie that it doesn't require external context • particularly important if you're reworking existing materialsProofread on screen AND on print outs • you can spot different errors with each approach!• print outs easier for spotting inconsistencies across pages/sections eg style of heading, design featuresEnsure headings are clear, meaningful, discrete• avoid duplication or 'clever' headlinesGet someone else to review• especially important if you're also the writer - they'll spot things you missed eg assumptions, ambiguities, duplication, as well as typosAlways complete review within the intended medium, eg ebook readers, smart phones, iPad