There are many ways for instructors to use this Pressbooks course. This instructor guide explains the modular design of the course, including how to best leverage its design to your own needs. Additionally, the instructor guide provides an overview of how to search and select content and ancillaries within the course, as well as ways to share the materials found in this course by importing them into your own Pressbooks or learning management system.

Modular Design

This OER is more than a textbook. It is a collection of modular resources, similar to a bucket of LEGOs, that you can use to build your course.

You can use these materials in a variety of ways. Imagine that you want to build a house from your LEGO pieces, and each type of resource is a different LEGO shape. The textbook content, for example, might be flat, wide LEGO pieces you can use as a base to build your creation (your course); videos might be window pieces, interactives might be doors, and so on. If you want your house to only have red and blue colors, you might choose a blue base piece (textbook content), red and blue windows (videos), and a red door (interactive). Nothing’s wrong with the yellow and green pieces, but they don’t fit what you’re imagining for your house. You also might have four blue base pieces, but you only need two of them, so you pick out the two that you prefer and leave the other two in your bucket of unused LEGOs.

Likewise, as you build your course, you may be seeking to cover specific standards, or the outcomes for your course might overlap with the resources offered here but not cover exactly the same content areas. Just like you would pick out only the red and blue pieces in the LEGO example above, you’ll only pick out the modular elements that cover the standards or content areas you plan to cover in your course.

Example: selecting applicable elements

Perhaps your course needs to address laws that govern special education services. Instead of having to read through every single element of Introduction to Special Education, you might look for components that are aligned to InTASC Learning Progression 9j.

Using the searchable TablePress found in the Using Aligned Standards section, you would type “9j” into the search box. When you do this, you would see a filtered list of

• 2 Modules
• 3 Activities
• 4 Assessments
• 1 External Resource
• 13 Interactive Learning Objects
• 4 Videos

You may not need 13 interactives! Or perhaps you like all four videos, and you have several more from another resource that you also want to use. Great! Use only the components that help you build the learning experience that’s right for your program, students, and personal teaching style. No need to read through the rest of the materials; just take what you need and leave the rest.

Importing Materials

There are various locations where you can place the components you choose easy student and instructor access. You are welcome to import the entire course or elements of the course into those locations, as long as you provide attribution for the materials.^[1]

• LMS: Most institutions have a Learning Management System (LMS) for use when teaching a course.^[2].
• OER Platform: There are many places where educators can build their own OER for their students.^[3]
• Other file sharing options: Institutions often pay for shared file storage.^[4] You can cut and paste module materials, download H5P and document files, and save images, as long as you provide attribution for the materials.

Importing to your LMS

• You can link to or embed individual items in this Pressbook in your course shell, within whatever LMS to which you have access.
• You can also copy and paste materials directly into your LMS, as long as you provide attribution for the materials.
• If your LMS has a Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) standard for Pressbooks, you can use it to place components into your LMS.

Importing to an OER Platform

Pressbooks

• You can copy an openly licensed book from any pressbooks network using the clone book button.

Clone Button

1. Copy Materials in bulk to adapt/adopt in your own Pressbook instance.
   1. Clone an exisiting Pressbook
      1. In your pressbook instance, from the dashboard select the Clone Book button
      2. Provide the URL of the book you want to clone
         1. Note: book must be Open and CC-licensed to allow editing.
      3. List the URL for the new book.
      4. Click the Clone book button
      5. After cloning the book will display in My Books. It’s recommended that you edit the book info right away.
   2. Import webbook to a Pressbook
      1. From your pressbook, select the import icon
      2. To import materials from the pressbook’s URL
         1. Select import type Webpage or Pressbooks webhook (.html or URL)
         2. Click Import from URL
         3. Provide source URL
         4. Click Begin Import button
         5. Use the checkboxes to select items for import. To import everything check the box next to title
         6. Check the box next to Show Imported Content in Web, if you want the imported material to display in webbook.
         7. Click the Import Selection button.
            1. Note: if the import fails or stops, you will need to repeat the process. However, some of the selected materials may have already been created, so you should adjust what you are importing to avoid importing duplicate items unless desired.
2. Import specific elements to a Pressbook
3. [explicit instructions on creating a new PB, importing materials, etc. Pull from existing resource.]
4. Place link to book, along with detailed instructions, into the LMS or most familiar location for students. [Find existing instructions.]
5. Be sure you provide instructions to students for how to print/create hard-copy textbook if that is their preference. [Find existing instructions.]

Other Platforms

Importing to File Sharing Tools

Google Workspace

Microsoft 365