The document discusses creating open educational resources (OERs) using PreTeXt formatting for a discrete mathematics course. Key benefits of using PreTeXt include its ability to easily embed images, videos, and interactive elements like SageMathCells and WebWork problems. PreTeXt allows math and scientific notation to be written in LaTeX, improving accessibility compared to using Pressbooks. The document provides examples of expandable "knowls" or sections in PreTeXt for proofs, examples, and exercise solutions.

1. Free the Textbook!
Kapiolani’s OERCA
(OER Creation Award)
Recharge ‘19 Tech Day, August 30
Sheryl Shook, Mary Esteban, Lisa Miller, Sunny Pai

3. Drop-down Menu for CONTENTS

5. Familiar and Intuitive
Editing Tools

6. Link to textbook
section on blood
pressure
Easily embed
OER
IMAGES
and
VIDEOS

7. For this lab: Over 40 high-quality
labeled images.
Click to enlarge.
HUGE time savings for me.
When we share with each other, we all
benefit:
More time for creative work and to
focus on teaching.

9. What do we value?
What is the goal?
HAPPY STUDENTS
Anatomy and Physiology, PHYL 142L
Zero-cost Textbook Course
The Science of Sleep, PHYL160L
Zero-cost Textbook Course

10. OER Resource for
Discrete Mathematics
for Computer Science,
ICS 141
Written in PreTeXt

11. OER Mashup Project
● Unique UH System-wide SLOs for Discrete Mathematics for
Computer Science I & II (ICS 141 & 241)
● No OERs matched all topics
● One is close!
○ Applied Discrete Structures by Doerr and Levasseur CC-BY-NC-SA
http://faculty.uml.edu/klevasseur/ads2/
● Some SLO topics come from
○ Discrete Math an Open Introduction by Oscar Levin CC-BY-SA
http://discrete.openmathbooks.org/home.php
○ Discrete Structures by Michiel Smid CC-BY-SA
http://cglab.ca/~michiel/DiscreteStructures
● Plus a few additions from myself, some Wikibooks, MIT
OpenCourseWare, etc.

12. Why PreTeXt, not Pressbooks?
● My main sources are already written in it!
● Many Math/Science instructors prefer typesetting with
LaTeX.
● Writing equations or in-text symbols in Pressbooks is:
a. Cumbersome
b. Renders as an image
■ Doesn’t scale well with the text
■ Not Accessible/ADA compliant
● Embed SageMathCells
● Embed WebWork interactive exercises

13. Authoring in PreTeXt
● PreTeXt is an XML vocabulary
○ Combines DocBook, LaTeX, and HTML
○ Compiles into print, PDF, web, EPUB, Jupyter Notebooks, LaTeX source,
etc.
○ Developed by University of Puget Sound https://pretextbook.org
● It is not WYSIWYG editable!
○ This is the biggest downside.
○ Must be familiar with XML or be willing to learn, fast.

14. Authoring in PreTeXt
● All math is written in Latex,
compiled by MathJax
○ https://www.mathjax.org/
○ Rendered using MathML, W3C Standard
for mathematical and scientific
content on the Web
○ ADA Accessible

15. Screen Reader PreText vs Pressbooks

16. Screen Reader: Logical Truth Table
PreTeXt MathJax PressBooks with QuickLaTeX plugin

17. PreTeXT “Knowls”
Expandable
● Proofs
● Examples
● Exercise solutions

18. PreTeXT “Knowls”
Expandable proof

19. PreTeXT “Knowls”
Expandable examples

20. PreTeXT “Knowls”
Expandable exercise answers

21. Embed WeBWorK Problems
● Can be local problems or from
other WeBWorK servers
○ Mathematical Association of
America’s Open Problem Library
○ http://webwork.maa.org/wiki/Open_
Problem_Library
● Cannot save student answers
○ Resource needs anonymous login

22. Embedded WebWork Problems

23. Embedded WebWork Problems

24. Embed SageMathCells
● SageMath is an open-source
mathematics software system
based on Python programming
language.
○ http://www.sagemath.org/
○ Replacement for Mathematica or
MatLab
● SageMathCells are small
web-page embeddable
instances.

25. Embedded SageMathCells

26. Students LOVE Smartphone Usability!

29. Rendered by QuickLaTeX.com

30. You can use normal latex packages,
however they do not all work.

31. This is what press books
shows when using certain parts
of Tex.
What should show up.

32. Questions?
Mahalo for coming!