Push play on the sound bar above to listen to the chapter.

Friends, I have included this chapter as an example of the instructions provided the authors of this text as we began the project. It has been customized for this project, and for #OpenOKState, but you are welcome to take whatever parts of it are useful!  ~Kathy Essmiller

What You Will Learn in this Chapter

This chapter will serve as a quick-start guide for authors creating content in ENGL 1113 Draft. You will discover the chapter template provided for your chapter, explore how to create content within the provided template, and will have the opportunity to practice adding images and other media to your chapter.

Quick-Start Overview

Your presence here indicates you have successfully authenticated and signed into your OpenOKState Pressbooks account and navigated to the dashboard of ENGL 1113_Draft. If you got here by accident, or aren’t sure that you can replicate your navigation, feel free to email kathy.essmiller@okstate.edu or text Kathy at 405-641-2401. The library’s goal is to partner our resources and competencies with your scholarly expertise so that you can share your work with others. If the platform is frustrating AT ALL, please let me help. Your gig is to be an English Scholar, mine is instructional design and digital resources. Text or email me before you want to cuss or cry, let me help keep this a joyful experience for you. The sections below will include the bare bones of what I think you will need to get started. For a deeper dive, see the OpenOKState customized edition of Publishing with Pressbooks.

If you are curious about OER and how we are working to support a culture of open at OSU, feel free to browse Exploring Open. Do not feel at all obligated, just if you are curious.

Creating Sub-Headings

Screen-reader accessibility is baked into the platform. If you are using additional subheadings or other formatting techniques to help communicate your content, please do so using the toolbar at the top of your chapter page. This will protect that functionality. The main headings in each of your chapter templates have been created using Heading 1. If you wish to create subheadings, select a format other than Heading 1 from the dropdown menu in the top left corner of the toolbar. For instance, the subheadings in this example chapter are Heading 2. I populated the chapter with Heading 2 subheadings (as well as further subsections from my chapter outline) prior to adding or creating the bulk of my content. Haha that’s not true I did not make a formal outline. But I did create the subheadings before writing the rest of the content.

Heading 3

This section’s heading shows what Heading 3 looks like. The platform automatically adds space between paragraphs. I don’t always feel like I trust it and love how it looks when I am in editing mode, but once I switch to preview mode I end up pretty happy with it, so I guess we can trust the coders. You can preview the content by clicking on the ‘preview’ button in the ‘Status and Visibility’ box on the right side of the page when you are editing your chapter. The red ‘Save’ button is in that box, as well. Hopefully you have already found it. Use it frequently, unless your life feels entirely too peaceful and productive and you need the zing that comes from losing your work.

Examples of Headings 4, 5 and 6 are below. Obviously, I am not using them correctly, which makes me nervous when writing for an audience of English faculty, but you are already probably so distracted by my casual and improper use of commas that the heading thing doesn’t even register. Sorry about that.

Heading 4

Heading 5

Heading 6

Adding Content

There are several ways to add your content, some of which enable a smooth workflow and some of which provide exciting challenges on down the road. If you are comfortable working directly in this platform, that is fantastic. Another option is to copy-paste your work from Google Docs or from Word. If you are choosing that option, please clear all formatting from the content before you copy-paste it into this platform. The formatting code (bold, italics, styles and headings) from Docs or Word can create accessibility issues for screen readers, so it’s best to bring the content over ‘clean’ and use the formatting tools in Pressbooks to achieve the look you want. Likewise, a straight-up import from Word brings lots of extra code that can cause problems. Email or text me if you run into issues with this, or if what I am saying doesn’t make sense to you. Or if it sounds overwhelming. I can help.

See the links below for information about how to include other structural elements, links, images, etc. Be sure to track attribution as you go. I have linked an attribution tracker in each of your chapters, but we will remove that in the final edition of the text. I just want to make it super easy for you to track attribution, and super hard to make an excuse for not having tracked attribution. 🙂 If you can’t figure out the attribution for your resource, contact me (Kathy) early on, and I will help track it down. I actually really like doing that early in the process, it is a fun puzzle/scavenger hunt to me. My feelings about doing it late in the process are quite different.

• Import Word document (if you want to give it a go and like to troubleshoot)
• Import Google Doc (same, but maybe less troubleshooting)
• Creating and using links
• Images and Files
• Video, Audio, Interactive Media
• Blockquotes and Pullquotes
• Bulleted and numbered lists
• Tables
• Textboxes

Adding Other Users

Each chapter is currently set to offer edit access to all of the ENGL 1113 authors, Josh, and by default because I am the platform administrator, me (Kathy). You may, however, wish to provide access during the content creation process to someone else for purposes of peer review, further collaboration, or because you have convinced them to put your content in for you, lol. If the person to which you wish to grant access already has an OpenOKState Pressbooks account, you should be able to add them at the desired level following the instructions described at this link. If they do not already have an account, email kathy.essmiller@okstate.edu to request an account for them. Include their name, email address, why you want them added, and at what level you want them added, and I will make it so.

Discussion Questions

This would be a list of 3-5 open ended discussion questions, thought of primarily for in class discussion questions or for students to write about as part of a homework assignment. I am not adding discussion questions yet, until we decide if you all want them numbered, bullet point, etc.

Sandbox

You each have edit access to this chapter. You are welcome to use this section to practice adding media, if you are nervous about experimenting in your own chapter. I have made another copy of this chapter, so if it gets broken it’s okay.

Scratchpad and additional notes

I usually keep a scratchpad at the bottom of the page when I am creating content directly in Pressbooks. Gives me a place to save stuff without risking formatting I am happy with. I mean formatting with which I am happy. Sorry again.

You may have noticed the ‘visual’ and ‘text’ tabs at the top right hand corner of the text editing toolbar. The visual option is a WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get), and the text option shows you a bit of the code. If you are accustomed to code, you might find some satisfaction working in the text tab to nuance your work. You may find there are things, code-wise, that don’t work the way you want. I think that is because of the accessibility baked into the platform. They make it very hard for us to break that by mucking around in the code.

About the author

name: Dr. Kathy Essmiller

institution: Oklahoma State University

Kathy’s background is in music education, where she enjoyed over fifteen fantastic years making music with MS/HS band students (including her own two kids). She is an Assistant Professor/Coordinator of OER at Oklahoma State University, and was a 2019-2020 OER Research Fellow. She holds Masters degrees in trumpet performance and educational technology, and a PhD in Learning, Design and Technology from OSU.