zyBooks provides the ability to create your own sections for use in your courses. Please see below for details about the types of content that may be added. Any sections you create will remain in your zyBook when you adopt again for future terms.
General notes
Formatting toolbar
The formatting toolbar is permanently anchored at the top of the screen and can be used to modify text with common options including bold, italics, and underline. Additionally, you may add lists, indent blocks of text, and undo/redo previous actions. Note that the formatting toolbar is available for text blocks and parts of question sets, tables, and the code editor content resources. Images use a different toolbar with appropriate actions for resizing.
Draft vs. Published
When you start authoring your section, it will be in a draft state and students won’t be able to see it. Once you finish authoring, publish your section and it will be revealed to students. Note that instructor-created sections will have a small banner indicating to students that this section is instructor-created.
Activity recording and assignments
Multiple choice and short answer questions authored in your sections are interactive, your student's activity is recorded, and can be included in your assignments.
Known limitations
Editing activities and questions after students have completed them is not yet fully supported and may yield unexpected results. Specifically:
- Adding a question will result in an unanswered question which students must return to and complete to receive credit.
- Removing a question a student has completed will not delete student completion activity data and may show a score > 100% for that activity.
- Reordering questions in an activity may result in student completion data being applied to the wrong question.
Content resource types
Text blocks
Text blocks allow you to add paragraphs of text to your section. Use the formatting toolbar at the top of the screen to apply common text formatting, insert lists, or perform other formatting as desired.
Question sets
Question sets allow you to create a participation activity of short answer, multiple-choice or true / false questions that will act similar to other zyBook question sets. Points will be assessed and recorded for question sets and will count toward student completion and show up in reports.
- Author one or more questions per question set.
- Each question must have a single correct answer specified.
- Each answer choice must have an explanation as to why the answer is correct or incorrect.
- Optionally, provide a set of instructions at the top of the question set for use in multiple questions.
Tables
When you create a table, define the columns and rows for that table and add a row for the table header. Additional rows and columns can be added later. Table cell content can be formatted and arranged using the formatting toolbar at the top of the screen.
Images
Add an image by dragging and dropping or specifying an image on your hard drive. Common file types are supported and max file size is 10MB. Resize your image as required and add alternate text to your image for accessibility purposes.
Also, please be mindful of image copyrights and don’t include images which may be construed as offensive to certain groups.
Videos
Add a video by providing a link to a video that is hosted on YouTube or Vimeo. Also, please be mindful of image copyrights and don’t include images which may be construed as offensive to certain groups.
Code blocks
Code blocks provide syntax highlighting for the selected language. Copy/paste a code snippet into the code block or type your code into the text area.
Code editor
The code editor provides an interactive environment for students to run and modify template code that you provide. This is great for in-class examples or having students alter variables and observing how output changes.
Code editor activities are not graded and will not count toward student completion or show up in reports. Use the zyLabs feature to create auto-graded coding exercises.
Advanced zyLab
Advanced zyLabs are auto-graded homework activities that can contain automated compare output tests, automated unit tests, and manual grading tests. Please see Advanced zyLabs to learn more.
How to get started.
To add a new section to a zyBook, navigate to the home page of the zyBook and expand the chapter the new section should be added to by clicking the small arrow on the right of the chapter block.
Scroll to the bottom of the chapter and select "Create section"
Enter a title for the section in the text field provided in the top-center of the page.
Select the content type on the left to add a content block to the section.
The list of content block titles on the left can be used to reorder the content block by clicking and dragging them
Hovering over the margins between activities gives the option to insert a new content block in that location rather than an the end of a section.