e books as learning resources for higher education

Learning with eBooks

eBooks as Learning Resources in Higher Education

Overview

revenue ebooks > revenue books

Overview

Overview

Overview

Overview

Overview

Overview

eBooks as Learning Resources

eBooks are...

...available

...portable

...searchable

...interactive

...updatable

eBooks as Learning Resources

eBooks are...

...an excellent alternative to traditional hardcopy learning resources

eBooks as Learning Resources

eBooks should be...

...easy to produce

...easy to maintain & update

...easy to distribute

ePub

ePub

International Digital Publishing Forum

ePub

ePub

PDF ePub

ePub

PDF

Easy to produce

Widely supported

Same layout everywhere:Perfect for Print

Digital DistributionAnalog Consumption

ePub

Production requires basic knowledge of HTML & CSS

Widely supported

Text resizing & text reflow:Easy to read on every

screen size

Digital DistributionDigital Consumption

Production

iBooks Author Sigil BlueGriffonePub Edition Calibre MediaWiki

Book Creator

Production

iBooks Author

• fixed layout eBooks with lots of multimedia & interaction

• proprietary ePub3-like format, that works only with iBooks on iPad or a Mac

• WYSIWYG editing

• Mac OS X only

• freeiBooks Author@Apple App Store

Production

Sigil

• ePub2 & parts of ePub3 supported

• WYSIWYG & code editing

• for Windows, Mac OS X & Linux

• open source

sigil@Google Code

Production

BlueGriffon ePub Edition

• ePub2 & 3 supported

• WYSIWYG & code editing

• integrated MathML editor

• for Windows, Mac OS X & Linux

• 200 Euros

bluegriffon-epubedition.com

Production

Calibre

• conversion of a plethora of eBook formats into each other (including PDF)

• eBook library management

calibre-ebook.com

Production

MediaWiki Book Creator

• Creates ePub (or PDF or OpenDocument file) out of a collection of Wikipedia articles

wikipedia.org

Production

Best Practices (Sigil)

• Create Template for Layout (CSS) - KISS!

• Get Text in .txt or .rtf Format - PDF is the Devil!

• Clean-up your HTML before adding the Template Styles

• Smart Use of Search&Replace saves Time

• Create Fall Back Versions

• Test your eBook on different Readers

Conclusions & Discussion

• Device Independency

• ePub not PDF!

• Several Editors and Authoring Approaches exist

• Basic eBooks are easy to create - with all Tools

• Complex eBooks are always difficult to create

Beat Oderbolzoderbolz@sipo.gess.ethz.ch