The first thing that caught my eye was that on the main page of books, there were books published in Hebrew! Five years ago I might have noticed that, but moved on. Now that I'm working in a Jewish Day School, finding resources that support Hebrew is a key priority. And, not only does it support Hebrew writing, the Hebrew books also open from right to left! (It also supports 27 other languages! Books can even be written in multiple languages!)
Of course I created an account right off, and started exploring.
I found Ourboox VERY easy to use. You can even upload PDF files that may have been created in Google Docs or a different platform. An important feature for educators, books can be shared publicly, in the OurBoox library of over 100,000 books, or privately, via links.
You can also include links, QR Codes, Videos - basically, anything you can think of can be added to a page. Oh, and if you want to create a class book? You can actually order printed copies of your books!
There are two things that I don't *love* right now, but I know they're always making updates.
1. Pictures and text can not be on the same page. Not likely a big deal for most. For an "asthetics" junkie like me, it's eh.
2. There is no way (yet!) to create bulk student accounts. Right now, students would need to create their own account. In upper grades, this is probably a non-issue. For lowers? Eh.
Even with those to "eh's," I still think Ourboox is worth checking out - it's a great FREE option for publishing books!
Check out their How-to for Educators!
