OFFICAL: Washington Open ProfTech: Six Open Textbooks Released

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Ashley Montenegro Ramirez

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Sep 12, 2025, 1:28:28 PM (12 days ago) Sep 12
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Washington Open ProfTech: Six Open Textbooks Released 
The Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges is pleased to share the outcome of the Washington Open ProfTech project: six open textbooks for professional technical programs. 
Made possible through a $1.8 million FIPSE grant from the U.S. Department of Education and four years of collaboration with a dedicated team of faculty authors, peer reviewers, consultants, editors, and staff, this project marks an important step forward for open education in professional technical programs. 
All of our textbooks are openly licensed, meaning they are free for anyone to keep, share, and adapt. They can be read online, downloaded as PDFs to print and digital, or integrated directly into Canvas. We hope you will consider these resources as primary or supplementary materials for your classroom. 
Each textbook offers interactive elements such as glossary pop-ups and knowledge-check questions designed to engage learners. Ancillary materials to support instruction are also available in Canvas Commons (search for Open ProfTech).
Now available:

by Wesley B. Maier, Kadence C. Maier, William M. “Bill” Overby, and Terry D. Edwards

by Gayle Julian, Brenda Boyd Brown, Angela Blums, Christine Moon, Jennifer Karshna, Ardene Niemer, Ninderjit Kaur Gill, and Holly Lanoue

by Anita Hedlund, Brandon Censon, Christine Malone, Karen Piette, Katie Baker, and Kristen Hosey

by Alice L. McLean, Meagan A. McGuire, and Angela Senter

by Micky R. Jennings, D.M. Donner, and Tim A. Bacon

by Douglas Rupik, David Colameco, Cameron Kjeldgaard, David Ridge, Stephanie Oostman, and Karl Fulton
Including these textbooks in your course may qualify it as an OER course, increasing its visibility in student course searches. For more information, please see the Washington OER and Low-Cost Labeling Policies.
Accessibility is a priority for our project, and all textbooks are designed to be accessible. For details on the specific measures taken, please refer to the Accessibility Statement included at the beginning of each textbook.
This project reflects the power of collaboration across our colleges, bringing the expertise of faculty, staff, and partners committed to open education and student success. If you have any questions, please contact us at openpr...@sbctc.edu.
With love,
The Washington Open ProfTech Team
Ashley Montenegro Ramirez; Monique Belair; Kayley Cruz; Boyoung Chae
Washington Open ProfTech
Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges
Serving Washington's ProfTech Programs Since 2021

Rich Hershman

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Sep 12, 2025, 2:14:28 PM (12 days ago) Sep 12
to Ashley Montenegro Ramirez, cccoer-...@googlegroups.com
Hi Ashley,

I want to applaud the Washington team for including an accessibility statement.  Every commercial and OER textbook should have one and great to see it present and the new publications are addressing the ADA regulations that will take effect next year.  I would suggest the accessibility information also be included in the metadata section as well

I would also like to suggest the textbooks need additional identification information as required by most states and federal laws of publishers.  

State laws generally require:
  • International Standard Book Number (ISBN) or other identifying information, which must include, at a minimum, all of the following: 
    • the title
    • all authors listed
    • publishers
    • edition number
    • copyright date
    • published date, and 
    • other relevant information necessary to identify the specific textbooks or instructional materials required and recommended for each course.

Unless I missed it, while I read a copyright statement, I did not see any copyright date and publication date.  I noted an ISBN is not assigned, which underscores the need for the copyright and publication date so faculty know how current the content is and students know they are using the correct content assigned.  Washington state law also requires the "history of revisions for the products, if any" so keep that in mind in the future when these textbooks are revised.   As the state defines the product you will need to make sure the information is in each format you have available on Pressbooks and the information needs to be available with any marketing material within the state.  

Thanks!

Richard Hershman
Vice President of Government Relations
NACS


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Heather Blicher

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Sep 12, 2025, 2:27:43 PM (12 days ago) Sep 12
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To the Washington Open ProfTech team, the faculty, staff, and everyone involved in this massive effort- congratulations!
I can't wait to take a closer look at these titles.

For those interested, OEGlobal/CCCOER and Pressbooks are having a webinar next week spotlighting Introduction to Welding. Join us or if you can't make it live, register, and this will ensure we send the recording to you. 
*Please share with your welding faculty!

When: Wed, Sept 17, 3 pm EDT/ 12 pm PDT (check your local time)

Hope to see you there!

Warmly,
Heather
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Heather Blicher (she/her)
Director, Community College Consortium for OER


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