What makes a textbook truly engaging in today’s digital and open learning environments? With students learning across formats, geographies, and paces, educators are rethinking how textbooks can become more than static resources. In the second OE4BW webinar of the year, Dr. Veeramani Malathi shares her experience building an interactive biology textbook using Open Educational Resources (OERs) — a project that combines open licensing, multimedia content, and global educator feedback to create a richer, more accessible learning experience for secondary and higher secondary students. The example textbook was launched during Eduscope 2024 as part of the OE4BW program.

The session will offer insights into:

• the roadmap and process of developing an open textbook using OERs
• the use of Pressbooks platform to create interactive chapters enhanced with H5P tools, videos, and simulations
• how educator feedback shaped the design and usability of the textbook
• promoting open pedagogy and global reuse through Creative Commons licensing
• how to repurpose existing OERs to create an engaging, accessible, pedagogically sound and widely accessible textbook.

About the Speaker

Dr. Veeramani Malathi is the Dean of Research and Associate Professor at Ethiraj College for Women, Chennai, India. With over 22 years of teaching experience at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, she has authored both open and commercial textbooks. Her research focuses on genomics and breast cancer, with publications in Scopus-indexed journals and GenBank contributions.

Dr. Malathi has served as a resource person in national training programs, organized international academic events, and completed multiple Faculty Development Programs (FDPs) and MOOCs. She is widely recognized for her innovative teaching methods, particularly in developing interactive e-content and open textbooks that make science education more accessible and engaging.

Can’t attend live? The recordings will be available soon after the webinar on the Videolectures website.

This webinar is part of the Open Education for a Better World (OE4BW) international mentoring program, which empowers participants to co-create high-impact Open Educational Resources (OERs) aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 4: Quality Education. This webinar is for OE4BW developers, educators, researchers, and anyone passionate about open knowledge and inclusive education.