Develop an eBook

Nurses, and particularly nurse educators, often have expertise in topics that could be beneficial to students, patients, or healthcare professionals. While the most commonly consider methods of sharing the expertise is through journals or at national conferences, other options exists. One option is the development of an electronic book.

This activity is designed to introduce nurse educators to developing electronic books. If you have expertise with doing this, select another group.

Click on the tab (above) labeled "Task" to proceed. 

Case situation to be solved: 

Your institution has faculty with expertise in ECG interpretation, and specifically in teaching it in a manner that has been demonstrated to have a lasting impact on how well learners remember the content. Based on this, your institution was given a small grant to develop a resource on this topic that could be freely available to learners both inside and outside of your institution. The stakeholders indicated a preference for an electronic book. The grant will cover cost of faculty to develop content and limited publishing costs. 

Your team has been assigned to investigate eBook publishing and propose a strategy to address this need. 

Click on the "Process" tab for instructions and resources to assist you. 

Instructions:

1. Review the suggested resources below
2. Examine the different options for developing eBooks 
3. Download at least one free software for developing electronic books (if someone in your group has a Mac, download iBook author)
4. Experiment with the software and write at least one paragraph 
5. Be prepared to share your experience with the larger group
6. Click the "Evaluation" tab to continue

Suggested Resources:

• Video:Example of teachers who have written eBooks for students: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1wslegevBQ (2:01)
• Initial steps video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxtRKVT3j9k (5:36)
• iBook (Apple) overview video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pr076C_ty_M (3:06)
• Article How to write an eBook: https://amylynnandrews.com/how-to-write-an-ebook/ or http://www.wikihow.com/Write-Your-First-eBook
• Perform a Google search for “Free eBook Software”
• Article: How to Publish an eBook: https://janefriedman.com/how-to-publish-an-ebook/

Discuss among your group if this was a helpful exercise. What challenges did you face? What benefits could it provide? How might this be used in your teaching environments? 

Be prepared to discuss your findings with the larger group of participants.

This WebQuest was developed by Jobeth Pilcher EdD, RN-BC