Four New eTextbooks Added to NCLOR OER Collection

The American Public University System ePress (APUS) ePress is an electronic academic publisher providing high quality open access, low cost, and specialty digital materials for online classroom and scholarly use. There are currently four course eTextbooks available within this series. The courses titles included are:

 

• Effectiveness in Writing
• Music Appreciation
• Research, Analysis, and Writing
• World Literature Anthology: Through the Renaissance

These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License.

The NCCCS courses that these resources may supplement are; ENG111, ENG116, ENG252, and MUS110.

To access these resources, you can do any of the following:

• Since these resources are open, you can access the series via Guest Access here: American Public University System ePress.
• Also you may log into the NCLOR and click on the More button on the left menu bar. Then click the Resource Series link and click the series of your choice.
• If you are K-14 faculty, you can add the links to the resources directly to your LMS based course. (learn how)

Three New Open e-Textbooks Series Added to the NCLOR OER Collection

Today, fifty-one new open e-textbooks were added to the open educational resources collection available within the NCLOR. The e-textbooks have been created by The University of Wisconsin, The University of Minnesota, and Oregon State University. The textbooks were created under a creative commons license and are free and open to use.

The subject included in this addition are: Accounting, Biochemistry and molecular biology, Biological and life sciences, Business administration, Change management, Climatology, Communication & Media, Cultural studies, Economics, Educational technology, Finance, Fisheries and wildlife sciences, Geography , Geology, Government, Human relations, Human resources, Information systems, Law, Linear Algebra, Marketing, Materials science, Organizational development, Physiology, Psychology, Social science, Sustainable agriculture, Technology and civilization, Web technologies, and Writing. 

The University of Minnesota collection of Open Textbook collection states its mission as “promoting access to higher education and collaborating to advance knowledge benefiting communities, the state, and world.”

The some of open textbooks available from The University of Minnesota are:

• Principles of Economics
• Principles of Macroeconomics
• Principles of Management
• A full list of available titles can be found here: University of Minnesota Libraries Open Textbooks

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The Open Oregon State collection is an part of OSU’s open educational resource initiative.

The some of open textbooks available from Open Oregon State are:

• Introduction to Permaculture
• The Joy of Cryptography
• Introduction to Climate Science
• A full list of available titles can be found here: Oregon State Open Text

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University of Wisconsin – Madison has made small set of open textbook available for use.

The some of open textbooks available from University of Wisconsin – Madison are:

• 13 Principles of Good Learning in Games – Applied to Teaching
• Creators, Collectors & Communities – Making Ethnic Identity Through Objects
• Developing Your Web Presence
• A full list of available titles can be found here: University of Wisconsin Pressbooks

The works listed above are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License.

The NCCCS courses that these resources may supplement are; ACA-111, ACC-120, AGR-139, AGR-300, BIO-165, BIO-175, BUS-110, BUS-137, BUS-153, BUS-237, BUS-255, BUS-260, CHM-130, CJC-131, COM-150, CSC-211, ECO-151, ECO-252, EDU-271, ENG-011, FWL-142, GEL-120, GEO-111, GEO-130, GIS-121, LIB-112, MAT-280, MEC-265, MKT-120, POL-120, PSY-150, PSY-237, SOC-210, and WEB-210.

To access these resources, you can do any of the following:

• Since these resources are open, you can access the series via Guest Access here: Oregon State Open Textbooks , University of Minnesota Open Textbooks ,  University of Wisconsin Pressbooks.
• Also you may log into the NCLOR and click on the More button on the left menu bar. Then click the Resource Series link and click the series of your choice.
• If you are K-14 faculty, you can add the links to the resources directly to your LMS based course. (learn how)

 

Open SUNY Textbooks Added to NCLOR

Today, 6 new eTextbooks were added to the open educational resources collection of the NCLOR. Open SUNY Textbooks is an open access textbook publishing initiative established by State University of New York libraries and supported by SUNY Innovative Instruction Technology Grants. This pilot initiative publishes high-quality, cost-effective course resources by engaging faculty as authors and peer-reviewers, and libraries as publishing service and infrastructure.

The pilot launched in 2012, providing an editorial framework and service to authors, students and faculty, and establishing a community of practice among libraries.

The titles of the added ebooks are:

• Music and the Child – Music Education
• Teaching Autoethnography: Personal Writing in the Classroom – Writing
• Good Corporation, Bad Corporation: Corporate Social Responsibility in the Global Economy – Business Ethics
• Steps to Success: Crossing the Bridge Between Literacy Research and Practice – Literacy
• Writing in College: From Competence to Excellence – Writing
• Nursing Care at the End of Life: What Every Clinician Should Know – Nursing
• A Spiral Workbook for Discrete Mathematics – Mathematics

The ebooks in this collection are all made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License  

The NCCCS courses that these resource may supplement are: BUS240, ECO151, EDU152, EDU253, EDU280, ENG111, ENG125, ENG126, MAT167, NUR3218, and NUR3252.

To access these resources, you can do any of the following:

• Log into the NCLOR and click on the More button on the left menu bar. Then click the Resource Series link and then Open SUNY Textbooks.
• If you are K-14 faculty, you can add the links to the resources directly to your LMS based course. (learn how)

Notre Dame University OpenCourseWare added to the NCLOR

Today, fifty new courses from the Notre Dame University OpenCourseWare were added to the NCLOR. The Notre Dame OpenCourseWare (OCW) is a free and open digital publication of course materials. By offering free, high-quality course materials to the world, OCW strives to overcome the barriers geography, economics, age and language present to the spread of knowledge.

This is a screenshot of the Notre Dame University OpenCourseWare website at http://ocw.nd.edu/.

The courses included in this resource series have links to lessons, assignments, exams, and additional resources. There are IMS package links in every course in order to download the complete course at one time. The subjects included are: Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, Africana Studies, Anthropology, Arabic and Middle East Studies, Architecture, Center for Social Concerns, Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences, Classics, Computer Applications, English, History, Latino Studies, Mathematics, Peace Studies, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Poverty Studies, Sociology, Theology, and University Writing Program.

This is an Open Educational Resource series and you can access this resource series by:

1. log into the NCLOR  < www.explorethelor.org > or through your institution’s learning management system (LMS)
2. navigate to the Browse by Resource Series area
3. click on the Notre Dame University OpenCourseWare series.

Open eTextbook series now available in the NCLOR

A new eTextbook resource series is now available in the NCLOR. Initially, there are 17 open eTextbooks available in the series, but we will be expanding on the collection in the near future. All of the etexbooks are open and FREE to use. The subjects included in this series are:  business, mathematics, chemistry, psychology, physics, marketing and many others. The majority of the eTextbooks are from the Connexions Repository at Rice University and have been endorsed by the Community College Open Textbook Collaborative.

The eTextbooks in this series are loaded to the NCLOR in multiple formats which include PDF, ePUB and links to online versions. The PDF versions of the eTextbooks are viewable on any PC and Mac computer and most mobile devices. The ePUB format is specifically designed to be viewed with mobile devices such as tablets and smart phones.  For more information about devices that can read the ePUB format, click here.

Why are Open eTextbooks important? Please view the video below from the Florida’s statewide Orange Grove Repository to find out the importance of open eTextbooks.

The eTextbook titles included in this series and the NCCCS courses the eTextbooks could enrich are:

• AP Environmental Science (EVN-110)
• Applied Finite Mathematics (MAT-167)
• Business Fundamentals (BUS-110)
• Collaborative Statistics (MAT-151)
• Concept Development Studies in Chemistry (CHM-081)
• Educational Psychology (PSY-263)
• Elementary Algebra (DMA-020, DMA-040,DMA-050, DMA-060, DMA-070, DMA-080)
• A First Course in Electrical and Computer Engineering (EGR-110)
• Fundamentals of Mathematics (DMA-020, DMA-030)
• Project Management for Scientists and Engineers (PMT-110)
• Three Modules on Clear Writing Style – An Introduction to The Craft of Argument (ENG-090)
• Introduction to Paleoanthropology (ANT245)
• Core Concepts of Marketing (MKT-120)
• Democratizing Innovation
• Education for a Digital World – Advice, Guidelines, and Effective Practice from Around the Globe (EDU-3005)
• College Physics (PHY-080)
• Introduction to Sociology (SOC-100)

To access this resource series:

1. log into the NCLOR  www.explorethelor.org  as guest or through your institution’s learning management system (LMS)
2. navigate to the Browse by Learning Resource Type area
3. click on  eBooks.

ReadWriteThink Resource Series Updated

Today, five new interactive resources from ReadWriteThink are now available for use. This K-12 series includes student interactive resources that focus on all aspects of literacy including literature, vocabulary, spelling, writing, and speech. All resources in this series have been reviewed and approved by the ReadWriteThink Advisory Board in partnership with the International Reading Association,the National Council of Teachers of English and the Verizon Foundation.

Image from ReadWriteThink’s Cube Creator Interactive Resource.

The new interactive resources are the Cube Creator, Resume Generator, K-W-L Creator, Line Break Explorer, and Puzzle Me Words. Using these resources you can engage your students in online literacy learning with these interactive tools that help them accomplish a variety of goals—from organizing their thoughts to learning about language—all while having fun.

To access the ReadWriteThink series you can:

1. log into the NCLOR as a guest or through your institution’s learning management system
2. navigate to the Browse by Resource Series area
3. click on the ReadWriteThink series.

ReadWriteThink Resource Series Added to NCLOR

ReadWriteThink’s mission is to provide educators, parents, and afterschool professionals with access to the highest quality practices in reading and language arts instruction by offering the very best in free materials. This K-12 series includes 54 student interactive resources that focuses on all aspects of literacy including literature, vocabulary, spelling, writing, and speech. All resources in this series have been reviewed and approved by the ReadWriteThink Advisory Board in partnership with the International Reading Association, the National Council of Teachers of English and the Verizon Foundation.

To access the ReadWriteThink series you can:

1. log into the NCLOR or through your institution’s learning management system
2. navigate to the Browse by Resource Series area
3. click on the ReadWriteThink series.