Publishing Platforms

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Denise Warner

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Dec 5, 2025, 1:37:52 PMDec 5
to CCCOER Community Email
Hi everyone,
We use the PressBooks free version  and WordPress to create OERs, but the problem is that the free version does not allow the creation of PDFs. We are wondering how other Community Colleges create and publish their OERs. We'd appreciate any information or suggestions you can provide.


1) What platform does your college use to create and publish OER? Would you recommend that platform? If so, why?

  • PressBooks
    • Free
    • Subscription
  • OER Commons
  • LibreText
  • OpenStax
  • Other- please specify which one 
2) If you use the free version of PressBooks, how do you publish and print?


3) If you purchase PressBooks, who pays for the subscription? Our OER program is run through our Center for Teaching Excellence, which has a pretty small budget, so the cost of the paid version is prohibitive.


Best regards,

OER Faculty Fellow




Heather Blicher

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Dec 5, 2025, 2:37:07 PMDec 5
to Denise Warner, CCCOER Community Email
Hi Denise,

For your question about who pays for the Pressbooks subscription, I know many U.S. states and Canadian provinces have the support of a consortium that covers the bill. As an example, in Virginia, VIVA is Virginia's academic library consortium. 

I hope we'll hear from others in the community on this!

Heather

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Sheri Prupis

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Dec 5, 2025, 2:44:05 PMDec 5
to Heather Blicher, Denise Warner, CCCOER Community Email

My faculty are concerned about all the OER materials that don’t meet WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility requirements.

 

Does Pressbooks have an accessibility checker?

 

We are at risk if our faculty use non accessible OER materials.

 

Sheri L. Prupis, Ph.D.

 

Director, Teaching & Learning with Technology

Virginia Community Colleges

300 Arboretum Place, Suite 200

Richmond, VA 23236

(o) 804-819-4797 (google) 812-757-4374

 

Level Up Your Future Now
at www.VCCS.edu

 

Logo of Virginia’s Community Colleges, featuring a blue and red sail design with the words “Virginia’s Community Colleges

 

 

 

 

   

  

Amanda Coolidge

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Dec 5, 2025, 2:47:22 PMDec 5
to Sheri Prupis, Ross, Heather, Heather Blicher, Denise Warner, CCCOER Community Email
Yes Pressbooks does have an Accessibility Checker. If you are interested in finding out more about that I would suggest you reach out to Heather Ross at University of Saskatchewan who has been raving about the tool. Her email is heathe...@usask.ca



--
Amanda Coolidge 
............................................

Coolidge Collaborative, Inc. is located on the unceded territories of the W̱SÁNEĆ (Saanich) and the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations of the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Lekwungen) Peoples.

Sheri Prupis

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Dec 5, 2025, 2:49:10 PMDec 5
to Amanda Coolidge, Ross, Heather, Heather Blicher, Denise Warner, CCCOER Community Email

Thank you!

 

How do we handle all the OER course materials that were not created accessibly? 

 

Sheri L. Prupis, Ph.D.

 

Director, Teaching & Learning with Technology

Virginia Community Colleges

300 Arboretum Place, Suite 200

Richmond, VA 23236

(o) 804-819-4797 (google) 812-757-4374

 

Level Up Your Future Now
at www.VCCS.edu

 

Logo of Virginia’s Community Colleges, featuring a blue and red sail design with the words “Virginia’s Community Colleges

 

 

 

 

   

  

 

From: Amanda Coolidge <amanda....@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, December 5, 2025 2:47 PM
To: Sheri Prupis <spr...@vccs.edu>; Ross, Heather <heathe...@usask.ca>
Cc: Heather Blicher <hea...@oeglobal.org>; Denise Warner <war...@star.lcc.edu>; CCCOER Community Email <cccoer-...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [Warning - Possible Phishing] Re: [CCCOER] Publishing Platforms

 

You don't often get email from amanda....@gmail.com. Learn why this is important

Elder, Abbey K [LIB]

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Dec 5, 2025, 2:57:32 PMDec 5
to Heather Blicher, Denise Warner, Sheri Prupis, CCCOER Community Email
Hi, Heather and Sheri!

Heather, another popular platform is Manifold, which all our colleges here in Iowa have access to through our consortial membership to the Open Education Network. Here is a link to the OEN's Manifold collection. Since it's built into a membership we already pay for, in some ways it's technically free. 

Libretexts is another great option for folks, since it can be free or paid (check out the Libretexts site for details). 

We use Pressbooks at my institution largely because our Press likes its flexibility for supporting textbooks, monographs, and other publications that can be exported to several formats. 

Sheri, Pressbooks has recently added support for an accessibility checker, and the tool is also free and you can download it for use on any site immediately. It's Sa11y: https://sa11y.netlify.app/bookmarklet/

One thing to note, as this has come up a few times, is that OER are easier to make accessible, often, than their commercial counterparts. Many are made with instructional designers and IT support that ensures accessibility is in mind from the start. For those that are not, we as a community can adapt and improve them for accessibility. In contrast, some publishers have been sued for not making their materials accessible for students, though it is clear that many are making concerted efforts to improve their systems with the ADA requirements looming.

All the best,

--
Abbey K. Elder she, they
Open Access & Scholarly Communication Librarian, Iowa State University
Statewide Open Education Coordinator, Iowa OER
From: 'Sheri Prupis' via CCCOER Community Email <cccoer-...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Friday, December 5, 2025 1:43 PM
To: Heather Blicher <hea...@oeglobal.org>; Denise Warner <war...@star.lcc.edu>

Cc: CCCOER Community Email <cccoer-...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: RE: [Warning - Possible Phishing] Re: [CCCOER] Publishing Platforms
 

Delmar Larsen

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Dec 5, 2025, 3:19:46 PMDec 5
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Along the theme, I may mention that LibreTexts has a range of tools for our textbooks:

  • An a11y checker (that is open-source not an external commercial system that cost extra to use)
  • Accessibility bots to update textbook content into partial compliance 
  • AI co-author tools to add AI generated alt-texts, key words (for indexes) and page summaries (for searches)

We plan to demonstrate these tools next month including the new "Superbot" we have plans to release on Feb. to super-charge automatic compliance. Look for details on that soon.

Cheers,

Delmar

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