New and Noteworthy is the City Tech Library OER Team’s bi-weekly roundup of new and noteworthy OER. We try to include at least one OER relevant to each school at City Tech in every post. At the end of the month, these resources will be compiled and distributed by the library liaison for your department. Please contact us if you know of new or particularly interesting OER to share with our colleagues or would like more information about OER initiatives at City Tech. We hope that you’ve had a restful summer and we are looking forward to connecting with you again in the Fall 2021 semester! 

Community Development

  1. The Community Tool Box, by Center for Community Health and Development, University of Kansas (2021). License: CC BY-NC-SA
    “Millions of people use the Community Tool Box each year to get help taking action, teaching, and training others in organizing for community development. Dive in to find help assessing community needs and resources, addressing social determinants of health, engaging stakeholders, action planning, building leadership, improving cultural competency, planning an evaluation, and sustaining your efforts over time.”

Arts & Sciences 

  1. Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom, by Robert Hutchinson, University of Puget Sound (2017). License: GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
    “Music Theory for the 21st–Century Classroom is an openly–licensed online four–semester college music theory textbook. This text differs from other music theory textbooks by focusing less on four–part (SATB) voiceleading and more on relating harmony to the phrase… In Music Theory for the 21st–Century Classroom, students learn about motive, fragment, phrase, and subphrase, as well as types of melodic alteration like inversion, intervallic change, augmentation, diminution, rhythmic change, ornamentation, extension, and retrograde.”

  2. Foundations of Neuroscience, by Casey Henley, Michigan State University (2021). License: CC BY-NC-SA
    “Foundations of Neuroscience is aimed at undergraduate students new to the field of neuroscience. The first edition specifically targets students enrolled in Neurobiology at Michigan State University and primarily contains topics covered in that course.”

  3. An Interactive Introduction to Organismal and Molecular Biology, by Andrea Bierema, Michigan State University (2021). License: CC BY-NC-SA
    “This “textbook” is interactive, meaning that although each chapter has text, they also have interactive HTML5 content, such as quizzes, simulations, interactive videos, and images with clickable hotspots. Students receive instant feedback when they complete the interactive content, and therefore, can learn and check their understanding all in one place. The first unit introduces students to the nature of science, including scientific controversies, and information literacy, including how to analyze literature and identify stakeholders. Unit 2 is organismal biology, including carbon cycling and population growth, and unit 3 is molecular biology with a focus on gene expression.”

  4. Thinking Rhetorically: Writing for Professional and Public Audiences, by Roger Williams University Department of Writing Studies, Rhetoric, and Composition, Roger Williams University (2021). License: CC BY-NC-SA
    “Thinking Rhetorically: Writing in Professional and Public Contexts is dedicated to introducing students to a lifelong commitment of engaging with these problems that matter. As an academic discipline, Writing Studies’ contribution to engaging with problems can be applied to all areas of study and to all types of problems because we focus on the way language itself—discourse—is created and exchanged in the service of engaging problems. Writing Studies deepens students’ rhetorical awareness of how the ongoing conversations between groups of people shape and express the problems that matter.”

  5. Basic Communication Course: Open Textbook for SPC 101 for 2019-2020, compiled by Tony Arduini (20). License: CC BY-NC-SA
    A compilation of a few introductory texts on Communication Studies

Professional Studies

  1. Digital Accessibility as a Business Practice, by Digital Education Strategies and The Chang School, eCampusOntario (2018). License: CC BY-SA
    “Most business leaders would agree that reaching the broadest audience is good for a business’s bottom line. A good portion of that audience will be people with disabilities. How, though, would an organization go about ensuring it is as accessible as it can be to all its potential clients or customers, including people with disabilities? This book has been created to answer this question, and to demystify “digital accessibility” as a business practice. It brings together all the pieces of the digital accessibility picture, and provides strategies and resources that will help make digital accessibility a part of an organization’s business culture.”

  2. Building a Medical Terminology Foundation, by Kimberlee Carter and Marie Rutherford, eCampus Ontario (2020). License: CC BY
    “Building a Medical Terminology Foundation is an OER that focuses on breaking down medical terms into their word parts, pronouncing medical terms, and learning the meaning of medical terms within the context of introductory anatomy and physiology. This resource is targeted for health office administration and health services students in the first year of their college programs.”

  3. Nursing Skills, by Kimberly Ernstmeyer and Elizabeth Christman,  WI Technical Colleges Open Press (2021). License: CC BY
    “This open access Nursing Skills textbook includes physical assessments routinely performed by entry-level registered nurses and basic nursing skills performed by licensed practical nurses. It is based on the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) statewide nursing curriculum for the Nursing Skills course (543-102), the 2019 NCLEX-RN Test Plan, the 2020 NCLEX-PN Test Plan, and the Wisconsin Nurse Practice Act. Learning activities are included to encourage the student to engage in critical thinking and apply the nursing process while analyzing assessment findings.”

  4. Constitutional Law Comes Alive: An Innovative Approach, by Tauya R. Forst, Richard J. Forst, College of DuPage Digital Press (2021). License: CC BY-NC-SA
    “This book is meant to be a practical approach for those who seek to enact, enforce, and interpret the law. This book is held to be a less intimidating and non-elitist approach to how one should view and use the freedoms, rights, and privileges in the United States Constitution and all other relevant sources. Notice each chapter contains the actual verbiage or words of the United States Constitution. Please read these words aloud as most of us began interpreting the United States Constitution before we have actually read the words.  We tend to confuse our favorable interpretations with the actual document; however, the document was meant to be used two-fold.”

  5. Women’s Health, by Dawn Markell, MHCC Library Press (2021). License: CC BY
    “This openly licensed textbook explores the multidimensional aspects of health and wellness as they overlap the female experience. Reproductive anatomy and physiology (including pregnancy and childbirth), cancer risk, nutrition, fitness, gender and sexuality, self-care, and health ageing are introduced.”

Technology & Design

  1. AutoCAD 2D eBook by Wally Baumback (2021). License: CC BY.
    “The AutoCAD 2D eBook was written as a tool to guide and teach you to master AutoCAD. No two students learn at the same pace, therefore the eBook was written with competency-based modules. The competency-based modules are bite-size pieces that allows you to work at your own pace. They can be used to learn by distance education, correspondence, online, instructor-lead classes, or by individuals teaching themselves to use AutoCAD in their own home or office. This eBook was designed to be used on AutoCAD software that was designed for the Windows operating system. An editable, Pressbooks version of this textbook is under development.”
  1. Blueprints: Creating, Describing, and Implementing Designs for Larger-Scale Software Projects – version 2.3 by Stephen Davies (2021). License: CC BY-SA.
    “Blueprints is a concise yet comprehensive coverage of Object-Oriented Analysis and Design concepts, suitable for a second programming course in Computer Science. It introduces and teaches application development in a command-line environment, and assumes basic expertise with the Java programming language.”
  1. Cellular Internet of Things for Practitioners by Reza Vahidnia and F. John Dian (2021). License: CC BY-NC-SA.
    “This book describes the simplified architecture of an IoT network from the core functional perspective and then presents step-by-step procedures to establish a connection between the IoT device and platform. It practically shows how to connect a cellular IoT module to the Microsoft Azure IoT Hub using the LTE-M technology.”
  1. Humans R Social Media, by Diana Daly, The University of Arizona (2021). License: CC BY
    “Social media and humans exist in a world of mutual influence, and humans play central roles in how this influence is mediated and transferred. Originally created by University of Arizona Information scholar Diana Daly, this Third Edition of the book Humans are Social Media uses plain language and features contributions by students to help readers understand how we as humans shape social media, and how social media shapes our world in turn.”

  2. Interpretation of Metal Fab Drawings by Cameren Moran (2021). License: CC BY.
    “Interpreting metal fab drawings is a course that introduces the principles of interpretation and application of industrial fabrication drawings. Basic principles and techniques of metal fabrication are introduced by planning and construction of fixtures used in fabrication from drawings. Basic tools and equipment for layout fitting of welded fabrications are utilized. Covers the use and application of the AWS welding symbols. This course will utilize blueprints and welding symbols and will apply them in classroom and in shop as practical assignments.”
  1. Think Java: How To Think Like a Computer Scientist – 2e by Chris Mayfield and Allen Downey (2020). License: CC BY-NC-SA.
    “Think Java is a hands-on introduction to computer science and programming used by many universities and high schools around the world. Its conciseness, emphasis on vocabulary, and informal tone make it particularly appealing for readers with little or no experience. The book starts with the most basic programming concepts and gradually works its way to advanced object-oriented techniques. Each chapter presents material for one week of a college course and includes exercises to help you practice what you’ve learned.” Code examples for the book are available on GitHub.
  1. Web Accessibility for Developers by Digital Education Strategies (2019). License: CC BY.
    “Web Accessibility for Developers is a technical book aimed primarily at programmers. Learn how to develop accessible interactivity on the Web and gain expertise using WAI-ARIA, a W3C specification that enables optimal use of assistive technologies, like screen readers, when navigating the Web.”

Cailean Cooney, Assistant Professor, OER Librarian: ccooney@citytech.cuny.edu
Rena Grossman, Adjunct OER Librarian: rgrossman@citytech.cuny.edu
Joshua Peach, Adjunct Reference & OER Librarian: jpeach@citytech.cuny.edu
Joanna Thompson, Adjunct OER Librarian: jthompson@citytech.cuny.edu 

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